My Child
by Youruichi-chan
Summary: Papyrus notices an odd coloration poking out of the golden flower bed near the entrance of the ruins, when Queen Toriel instructs him to water the flowers. Set after the first half of the Pacifist run when Frisk leaves the barrier, leaving the monsters underground after they leave Frisk a voicemail. Toriel returns as Queen to rule the underground in place of the late King Asgore.
1. UT Sans - My Child part 1

I'm not dead! I'm so sorry for the super long hiatus! I'm back with another story that I hope you guys will love!

For everyone who have read my stories before, I want to thank you. You probably thought I was gone for good, but I never left, I just wasn't posting anything for life got in the way for literally all these years. Again, I'm sorry for the super long wait.

Also I'm sorry in advance if any of the characters seemed a little OOC. I tried my best to match them to their personalities! The horizontal lines mean time skips.

This story was originally a Sans x Reader, but it has come to my attention that those stories are not allowed on this site, so any "Y/n" 's will be "Fate". So basically it will be changed to a normal story. I'm sorry for any inconvenience. It has stayed as a x reader on my Archive Of Our Own page, ID Koyukiy.

Please enjoy!

* * *

"...YOUR MAJESTY? YOUR MAJESTY!"

A sudden voice snapped Toriel out of a small trance she quietly slipped into. She was sitting on her throne, listening to Papyrus and reading over a couple of requests from civilian monsters about improving the underground, until she started thinking deeply and then...

"...should rest."

 _Ah, it happened again..._

"I am sorry. Can you repeat that?" Toriel asked.

"i was saying that you keep spacing out and if you're not feeling well, maybe you should stop and rest." Sans sighed.

"Oh! No no, I am feeling just fine. I was merely thinking is all and I also just remembered that the golden flowers in the ruins have not been watered today, to my knowledge." she turned her focus to "Papyrus, dear?"

"YES, YOUR MAJESTY?"

"Young one, I told you, you do not need to refer to me as such. You may call me by name. Anyhow, will you be a dear and water those flowers for me? We do not want them to wither." Toriel finished slightly exasperated.

There was a silent agreement of 'We need those flowers to break their fall in case another human falls.'

"OF COURSE, YOUR MAJESTY! I, YOUR GREAT ROYAL GUARDSMAN, WILL MAKE HASTE!"

"Oh, the watering can is under the kitchen sink!" Toriel called after him as he rushed away and then giggled at his enthusiasm.

"Now then," Papyrus heard her say before he completely exited the room. "Will you accompany me, Sans? There are some requests I can do now—"

Papyrus didn't hear Sans' response.

* * *

"ALRIGHT!" Papyrus spoke to himself cheerfully as he filled up the watering can and proceeded to walk towards the flowers.

He hummed (nyeheh-ed) his own theme while he made his way to the room and promptly exclaimed when entering, "FEAR NOT, YOUNG FLOWERS! THE GREAT PAPYRUS IS HERE TO QUENCH YOUR THIRST!"

He could have sworn the flowers answered him with a small high-pitched whine, but he shrugged it off, thinking how silly that sounded. Flowers don't speak and Echo Flowers only mimic you, so it's not the same! Actually, there was that one flower...

He neared the flower bed and positioned the watering can over it, but stopped short when he spotted some out of place colors popping out of the mass of yellow.

"NYEH?"

He crouched down to try and get a better look and he gasped happily upon finally making out a tiny, curled up bundle in a faded purple shirt that looked to be baggy and light colored shorts. He picked up the small, unsuspecting human child with a happy, lit-up face; the child jumping out of it's skin with a startled gasp. There was a pause of motion as a sudden air of fear surrounded the child and a bemused expression plastered itself on Papyrus' face as the child's lip quivered.

 _What just happened—_

Before he could fully finish his thought, the child let out a loud cry making Papyrus jump out of his skin.

Pun intended.

"OH NO!" Papyrus panicked. "PLEASE DON'T CRY TINY HUMAN! I'M NOT SCARY! UM...UH...OH! I KNOW!"

Papyrus threw the child up in the air and caught her. He continued to repeat this action until the child was squealing with laughter.

"THERE YOU ARE! YOU SEE, I'M NOT SO SCARY AT ALL!" Papyrus smiled.

The child reached up curiously and put her tiny hands on his teeth, wanting to know what it felt like, all the while making little cooing noises. Papyrus stayed silent for fear of accidentally biting her hand.

 _'I MUST TELL HER MAJESTY ABOUT THIS!'_ he thought. _'BUT IF I RECALL, SHE WON'T BE IN THE CASTLE...'_

"SHE COULD BE ANYWHERE BY NOW!" Papyrus thought out loud now that the child stopped playing with his teeth in favor of playing with his scarf. "FEAR NOT, TINY HUMAN. I WILL DELIVER YOU TO HER MAJESTY AND SHE WILL TAKE GOOD CARE YOU! AWAY WE GO!"

Papyrus looped her under his arm and started running. The child squealed in delight at the sudden speed, having fun.

In the golden flower bed, Flowey hid in the center, secretly hoping Papyrus wouldn't notice him. When he was gone, he slowly rose carefully, making sure Papyrus was really gone.

"Ugh...Good riddance..." Flowey spoke to himself. "I was starting to wish I didn't catch the little brat with all that whining and crying. Now I can finally catch up on some sleep..."

The flower's leafs and petals drooped as he lowered himself a bit to get in a comfortable position and quickly slipped into slumber.

* * *

Papyrus ran about carrying the child with him, who was carefully wrapped in his scarf for warmth. He has searched a wide part of the underground, but he couldn't seem to catch up to Toriel. When he asked around, his fellow monsters would say things like, 'Oh, she was around here a while ago...". Finally he decided to try the castle in case she returned and bumped into his brother.

"OH, SANS!" he rushed over to him. "HAVE YOU SEEN HER MAJESTY?! IT IS _VERY_ URGENT."

"she just laid down to get some rest, bro. what's up?"

"OH NO! I WAS TOO LATE! NOW WHAT DO WE DO?!"

"whoa, whoa, just take a breather...whatcha got there?"

"THAT'S JUST IT! I FOUND A HUMAN!"

Papyrus leaned down enough for Sans to see the sleeping bundle. She stirred a little bit, starting to feel uncomfortable in the heat of the scarf.

"crap..." Sans put a hand to his teeth trying to think. "she's sleeping pap. i don't wanna wake her up knowing how tired she is."

A thoughtful silence overcame the brothers, conflicted with the situation. Toriel would know exactly what to do, but if she's so tired she turned in early...Well, it wasn't that early, it was starting to get late, but still.

"SANS...WHAT DO YOU SAY WE TAKE CARE OF THE HUMAN UNTIL TOMORROW? THEN WE CAN HAND THE HUMAN OVER WHEN HER MAJESTY WAKES UP."

"...might have to. we'll let her know as soon as we get up."

"AGREED."

* * *

The child and Sans had a staring contest with each other when she woke up. The moment she heard the door to their house close, she woke up in Papyrus' arms, but the first monster she spotted was Sans. She was confused. Another skeleton? She leaned down slightly and reached out to Sans, with arms open.

"huh? you want me to hold ya, kid?" Sans took her and again they stared at each other.

She put her tiny hands on his face, feeling his teeth just as she did with Papyrus. She giggled as she felt the grooves.

"curious little guy, ain'tcha?"

"I AM SURE THIS HUMAN IS FEMALE, BROTHER."

"oh yeah?"

 _"SANS!"_

Sans chuckled, a sound that said, 'Better safe than sorry'.

* * *

"THIS IS METTATON'S SHOW, TINY HUMAN!"

Papyrus watched T.V with the human, as she sat on Papyrus' lap, whom they still haven't learnt the name of.

"Ton!" the child exclaimed, pointing a chubby finger at the moving Mettaton in the T.V.

Papyrus froze momentarily in surprise.

"...YOU CAN SPEAK?!"

"she's a toddler, pap. she can probably say a couple of words if you teach 'em to her."

"OH. HUMAN, WHAT IS MY NAME?"

The child looked at Papyrus, the wheels in her head turning.

"I AM PAPYRUS! COME ON, SAY IT WITH ME! PA-PY-RUS!" he spoke slowly to help the child.

"Pa..."

"YES, THAT'S RIGHT! PAPYRUS!"

"Pa...rus. Parus!" she cheered, giggling while clapping her tiny hands together.

"AND THIS IS MY BROTHER, SANS!" he mentioned to the smaller skeleton who was also watching the T.V next to his brother. "REPEAT AFTER ME: SA-NS."

"...Sas..."

"SANS."

"Sas!"

"GOOD ENOUGH! NYEH-HEH-HEH!" Papyrus chuckled.

Sans chuckled along with Papyrus, watching the cute scene. The child gave out a whine when a loud rumble came from her small body. The two skeletons paused and looked at each other before Papyrus stood up, taking the child with him.

"WHAT IN TORIEL'S NAME WAS THAT?"

"the kid's hungry."

"I SEE! I WILL GET THE SPAGHETTI!"

"if you don't mind, pap, i'll take the kid to grillby's." he stopped Papyrus.

Papyrus isn't quite done with his cooking training and Sans knew for sure that the kid is either going to spit it out, or get a stomachache...or both. It's best to save Papyrus' feelings and the child while he had the chance.

"kid's gonna be here for a long while, so it's best to introduce her now and get it out of the way." Sans took the child, putting a gloved hand on her back for extra security. "b'sides, i want her to try one of the best burgers and fries in all of underground."

"OH, ALRIGHT. BUT YOU BETTER COME BACK AS SOON AS YOU ARE DONE! I DO NOT WANT HER TO MISS METTATON'S NEXT SHOW!"

"alright." Sans chuckled and wrapped Papyrus' scarf around the kid again.

...

Not that she let it go to begin with.

The child had an appetite for a tiny one! Sans started to wonder when the last time she ate was. To say Grillby was surprised when he saw his best friend with a human baby was an understatement. He and Grillby had an informative conversation (for Sans) about human toddlers and what she can eat and had now moved on.

"so how old do you think she is?"

"...She seems to be about 2 years of age, maybe 3." Grillby fetched a napkin and reached over to wipe some ketchup off the child's face, who sat in a booster seat. She scrunched up her face slightly, closing one of her eyes to protect it while he wiped. The process didn't faze her otherwise. "...Do you think this is wise? Why not hand her to the lady Queen?"

"tori's swamped as it is. plus she's already gone to sleep. me n pap decided to give the kid over in the morning. 'til then, 's up to us."

Sans watched her eat a small plate of fries, starting to think. It took all her fingers to hold the over sized fork, or so it seemed compared to her tiny hand. She ate carefully, trying to make sure she didn't drop any food; occasionally she did just that, the food landing right back on the plate instead of her open mouth.

"...what i want to know is how this one ended up falling? she's way too small to be wandering around alone."

They noted earlier that she didn't seem to be malnourished or abused, although her clothes were a bit baggy on her and she had no shoes.

"...It _is_ a mystery...Perhaps she was on a family trip to the mountain and they neglected to watch her?"

"wouldn't you think mom or dad would fall after her or at least come looking by now?"

"...Or perhaps she is an orphan?"

"...that actually strikes me as more of the truth."

"Ouchy?"

They turned their attention to the child who had an index finger in her mouth and was pointing another chubby finger at Grillby.

"don't worry kiddo, he's fine." Sans explained a more amused smile on his skull.

"Ouchy!" the child insisted.

The two chuckled as Grillby reached over and put a hand on the child's. The child squealed in terror for a brief moment, then put her other hand on top of Grillby's in wonder, rubbing his hand curiously.

"are ya done kiddo?"

She pushed the plate away as an answer. There were only a few stray fries left.

"in that case, we should be headin' back. don't want pap to get worried." he said standing up.

The child waited for Sans to pick her up and then waved to Grillby.

"Bye bye!" she said.

Grillby crackled softly as he smiled and waved back.

* * *

A slideshow of insanity flashed in Sans' mind's eye.

 _Dust like fog every where..._

 _Papyrus' scarf lazily laying on top of a pile of dust..._

Sans shuttered the thought away as he watched the child play with Papyrus' rubber ducky in the bathtub. For some reason, she stuck to Sans like glue and didn't want to go without him when Papyrus tried to take her for bath time. It wasn't like she didn't like Papyrus, if that were the case she wouldn't have ran up and hugged him as soon as her eyes landed on him.

Sans felt uneasy. Frisk was difficult, but in the end, they ended up favoring MERCY and didn't kill a soul. But, what if this one was a bad cookie? I mean, she's just a sweet baby now and couldn't kill a Whimsun even if she wanted to, but what if she thinks differently once she's grown a bit? And let's say she grows attached to Sans, Papyrus and even Toriel and Grillby. If she is what he fears she's going to be, she'll just dust the monsters she isn't attached to.

He couldn't take his thoughts anymore; they were going to drive him mad. Sans shakily put a hand on her chest and slowly and carefully pulled out her SOUL.

PATIENCE.

Well...That's not horrible. It's better than DETERMINATION. Wait, that's not it. Her SOUL also had a kind of green tint to it?

KINDNESS. So she's UNDERSTANDING?

Sans breathed a sigh of relief, all tension lifting from his bones as the child cooed happily at a sudden pretty shiny coming from her chest. What he found slightly curious was that she didn't reach out to touch it, like he noticed she usually does with other things. With those traits, she won't be killing anyone anytime soon. He also learned her name when he took a close look at her SOUL: Fate.

By the time Sans finished giving Fate a bath, it was time for bed. Sans read a bed time story to Papyrus and by extension, Fate. She seemed comfortable, so he tucked her in with Papyrus and went to bed himself.

* * *

 _crying...who's crying...?_

 _G?!_

Sans shot up in bed, startled and wide awake as his mind finally registered the sound. Fate. With a sigh, he let himself fall on his back and groaned, putting the heels of his palms on his eye sockets.

 _this is too much work..._

He heard Papyrus' voice try to calm Fate down as her crying increased in volume a little. **_welp_**...He forced himself out of bed and made his way downstairs.

"OH, SANS!" Papyrus seemed panicked as he noticed Sans make his way downstairs. "I DO NOT KNOW WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE TINY HUMAN!"

Fate quieted down and whined at Sans, grabbing for him.

"'m pretty sure she's hungry." Sans replied as he made his way over to his brother. "give me a sec."

He promptly disappeared before Papyrus could even think about answering.

"hey, grillbz. i'm gonna have to be quick."

"...Of course." Grillby disappeared to the back and wasted almost no time returning with a warm bottle. "...She might be a bit too old for a bottle, but it'll do the trick. Good luck."

"i owe you one."

"Like always."

Sans promptly reappeared just as Fate was about to start wailing again.

"here kid. eat up."

"WHERE DID YOU GET THAT?" Papyrus asked as Fate quickly sucked on the nipple of the bottle.

"grillbz helped me prepare it. it's almost time. let's go."

"RIGHT."

They made their way over to the castle, Papyrus letting Fate borrow his scarf for warmth when she needed it. They gained many curious stares, but they ignored it, deciding to get to Toriel as soon as possible. At some point, Fate wanted Sans to carry her.

When they got there, Toriel was already sitting on her throne having a conversation with Alphys and Undyne.

"THERE YOU ARE, YOUR MAJESTY! WE HAVE A SURPRISE FOR YOU! OH, HELLO ALPHYS AND UNDYNE!" Papyrus enthused making his way over very quickly and waving at three.

"Hi, Papyrus!" the two greeted back, Alphys' greeting more timid than Undyne's.

"tada." Sans all but said as he presented the tiny toddler to the Queen.

Toriel gasped, quickly standing and taking Fate from him, giggling with glee. Fate gave a small 'Ah!', not prepared for the sudden transfer. She was about to cry and pull away, but Toriel started to cuddle the toddler and Fate instead started to giggle along with her.

"I FOUND HER WHEN YOU TOLD ME TO WATER THE FLOWERS! _THE FLOWERS!_ I NEGLECTED TO WATER THEM!" Papyrus gasped and then saluted. "I SHALL TAKE CARE OF THAT IMMEDIATELY!"

He bolted away as soon as the words left his mouth, giving Toriel no chance to respond.

"he looked everywhere for you yesterday." Sans explained. "but when he found you, you already went to bed, so we took care of her for ya."

"Oh dear! For something this important, you should have woken me!"

Fate played with Toriel's ears as Sans shrugged.

"thought you deserved the rest."

"Sans." Toriel exasperated, but it sounded more like a whine, then she shook her head as if dismissing a thought. "What about her behavior? Does she wander away? Does she have fickle eating habits—"

 _"tori,"_ Sans interrupted her slowly. "she's no problem at all. she's mostly quiet, if you put her down, she'll follow you like a lost duckling, she eats well, the works."

Toriel hummed in acknowledgement, letting Fate climb on her shoulders a bit, trying to reach her horns. She kept a paw on her at all times, just in case.

"It is nice to meet you, my child." Toriel spoke, when Fate came back down to her eye level. "My name is Toriel."

"To-ri...?" Fate recited the way Papyrus helped her pronounce names.

"Yes, that is right! Oh, you are such a smart child!"

Fate giggled at the praises.

"and in case you were wonderin'...her SOUL is UNDERSTANDING." Sans chimed in.

"UNDERSTANDING?" Undyne repeated, a bit confused.

"T-That's a c-combination of PATIENCE a-and KINDNESS." Alphys explained.

"How wonderful!" Toriel barely contained her joy. "She is a good child..." Toriel gave a disappointed scoff as she finally noticed Fate's attire. "Just _look_ at these clothes. I have an outfit that will fit you much better."

"be good for tori, alright kid? see ya later."

Toriel started walking towards the spare children's room as Sans turned around. With his job done, he figured he'd go to Grillby's for breakfast, but as soon as Fate saw the small skeleton walking away...

"No, no!" she started crying, trying to reach for him. "Dada!"

"Oh dear!" Toriel exclaimed, stopping in her tracks.

Sans froze mid-step, eye lights shrinking to pinpricks and flickering in total surprise... _did i hear her right?_

"Dada!" as if hearing his thoughts, Fate repeated herself, continuing to cry.

"Sans." Toriel softly called him. "It seems she has grown attached to you."

Sans sighed, walking back to Toriel. He stood in front of her, staring at the sniffling toddler. Fate reached for him, trying to stretch down. Reluctantly, he took the child and held her just to calm her down.

"...i..." he looked up at Toriel with a cross between a lost and confused expression and sighed once more. "look, i can deal with taking care of her for _one_ day but... this is more up your alley."

Sans tried to hand Fate back to Toriel, but this time she clung to him, holding fists full of his sweater with her small hands. Sans huffed.

"c'mon kid." he basically whined. "i'm no good at taking care of ya, let alone raising ya..."

"Da." Fate caringly snuggled his face, placing her hands on his cheek bones.

He knew. He knew she understood him perfectly. It's her SOUL trait, for crying out loud! Her gesture made his SOUL quiver in happiness, but it also confused him. He's only known the kid for a total of twenty-four hours. He doesn't bond to anyone that quickly! This kid is something special...Toriel giggled at the adorable scene.

"You two look lovely together." Toriel mused.

"tori, i really don't think this is a good idea..." Sans felt blue dust his cheek bones.

"It doesn't look like you have a choice, Sans!" Undyne observed. "Looks to me, the human's calling the shots!"

Sans sighed in resignation. _why me..._

He returned home, with Fate in his arms, muttering an, "'m home..." as he closed the door behind him. Fate copied his actions with her own greeting.

"Parus!" she called.

They heard a door upstairs open and Papyrus' footsteps. Sans put Fate down and she stood next to him until she saw Papyrus.

"WELCOME HOME!" Papyrus came down to ask Sans where he's been and why he heard Fate's voice, but was surprised to see the child with him.

She then immediately ran up to the boisterous brother and hugged one of his legs, her tiny body only managing that much.

"AND WELCOME TO YOU TOO, TINY HUMAN!" Papyrus continued, wobbled over to his brother with Fate still on his leg and spoke a little quieter. Fate giggled as Papyrus moved. "I Thought She Would Begin Her Stay With Her Majesty Today?"

"fate had different ideas..."

"FATE?"

"that's her name."

"OH. SHE DID NOT WANT TO STAY WITH HER MAJESTY?"

"nope. she started cryin' when i started leavin'. so," Sans breathed out the word 'so'. "guess we have a new house mate."

"OH, GOOD! I WANTED TO SHOW HER MORE METTATON SHOWS! SHE ALSO HASN'T TRIED MY SPAGHETTI YET!"

Sans let his permanent smile grow to a more genuine one. Since Papyrus was happy about it, he guessed that maybe this wouldn't be too bad.

The brother's took care of Fate the same way they took care of her on the first day. It became somewhat of a routine: wake up, feed Fate, let her play (inside of course, until she gets some shoes and winter wear), have a light meal for lunch, watch Mettaton on T.V, have dinner, give her a bath, read her and Papyrus a bed time story, and then bed time. That routine would detour ever-so-slightly when Toriel's weekly visit came to give Fate anything she needs, like extra clothes and of course, shoes.

Fate eventually got used to Toriel coming over and was confused when she noticed the Queen missed the week. She walked up to Sans with her funny little wobble she had when she walked with her shoes on. Sans deliberately put her in her shoes _just_ to watch her walk. He thought it was _adorable._ Plus, she needs to break them in anyway.

It has been 2 months now since Fate fell.

"Dada?"

Sans doesn't think he will ever get used to that, but he learned to respond to it. He answered her with the same tone she used.

"princess?"

In one of her visits, Toriel brought over a princess dress she made herself, wishing to dress Fate up. The child absolutely adored it and squealed when she opened the box Toriel brought it in. She hugged the dress and then hugged Toriel with the dress. She was so eager to put it on, she held the dress up to Toriel, urging her to help her put it on. She wore it every day after that. The only reason she's not wearing it now is because Papyrus washed it since it was "FILTHY" and is now drying.

"Mama?"

Sans gave her a puzzled look. She had to have meant Toriel. He went to answer, but at that very moment Fate decided he was taking too long, turned tail and ran off. Maybe to grab something, he guessed. Immediately after thinking that, he was proven right as she held up her unfinished macaroni art Papyrus was helping her with of some kind of weirdly figured...figure. It seemed to be tall, have long ears, and a long outfit. Yup. Sounds like Toriel.

"Mama!" Fate insisted.

"she didn't visit this week, huh?" Sans realized. "tori's probably busy. she is the queen."

Sans paused, thinking a bit as he stared at his "daughter's" pleading face.

"alright. get ready to leave."

Fate rejoiced with a big, beaming smile and ran off once more to grab her favorite stuffed animal, another gift from Toriel, which was in Sans' room. On her way back to the stairs, she knocked on Papyrus' door, thinking he might want to come with.

"Parus!" Sans heard Fate call and he chuckled to himself.

He heard Papyrus open the door and the two started to converse while Sans picked up Fate's sweater in case she got cold. Fate made her way down the stairs carefully and met up with Sans once again.

"he didn't want to come?" he asked.

Fate shook her head.

"ok." He picked her up and she rested her weight on him. "ready?"

"Yay!" she exclaimed while raising a hand.

"hold on tight." he said as both hugged each other securely.

Curiously, Fate kept her eyes open as Sans teleported to the Castle's throne room. It happened in a span of a second. She felt movement, then saw and heard literally nothing while still in Sans' safe arms and then the throne room shifted into sight, facing Toriel's chair.

Sans noticed a confused expression on Fate's face when they pulled apart.

"shoot." he said, knowing she was about to ask a question.

"Grapa?"

"what?"

"Skelly grapa."

Sans stared at her face, his permanent smile drooping slightly as he tried to figure out what she was trying to say. He got pretty good at understanding what she's saying, including the nonsense she sometimes comes up with, but this time she got him good.

"My! What are you two doing here?"

"Mama!"

Sans set her down so she can greet her. Toriel picked up the child as Fate gave her a sloppy kiss on her cheek and Toriel giggled lovingly, giving the child a tight squeeze and a cheek nuzzle.

"you were late, so she came to you." Sans answered her previous question, his full smile now on his skull.

A look of recollection came to Fate's face as she remembered that Sans didn't understand her in their previous conversation.

"Dada." she pointed at him.

Sans watched her in slight confusion as he waited for her to continue.

"Mama." she put a tiny hand Toriel's cheek, then turned back to Sans, hunched her back, put her hands in front of her chest and folded her hand downwards, like as if mimicking someone's posture. It reminded Sans of a ghost. "Skelly grapa."

 _Ohh...Skeleton grandpa?_ That has to be one of her nonsense phrases she comes up with sometimes. It just doesn't make any—

Sans' face transformed into one of panicked realization, his eye lights shrinking to tiny pinpricks that flickered rapidly.

 _"...you saw him?"_

"Sans?" Toriel called to him.

She had no idea what has just gotten into him. Did he see a ghost? Sans shook his head, making himself calm down after he saw Fate eyes starting to water. He's scaring her.

"ugh, sorry, sorry." he said, putting a hand in front of him and shaking his head again.

"Whatever is the matter?"

"no, it's nothing. i just had an unpleasant thought." he shoved his hands back into his sweater pockets.

"Why don't I take Fate for the day? I can bring her back before bed."

"not busy today, queen toriel?"

"I do not have much to do today and my tasks can be easily finished, so you do not need to be worried."

"...ok. that doesn't sound like a bad idea. don't worry about bringing her back, i'll pick her up."

Toriel nodded.

"be good for tori, alright? i'll be back later."

"Kiss!" Fate exclaimed, wiggling.

Toriel let Fate down and she hurried to Sans. He knelt down to let Fate give him a kiss on his cheek bone, then she gave him a hug for extra affection and hurried back to Toriel. Sans bid the two another short farewell styled with a pun, as he walked off only to teleport away while hearing Toriel's giggling fade away.

 _i'll go to grillby's._

* * *

"SANS, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"

When Papyrus came home, he found Sans laying on the couch upside down. The T.V. was on, but all that was on was a rainbow of stripes and words that said, "STAY TUNED FOR A NEW PROGRAM - MTT."

"watching the show. want to join me, bro?"

While in the same position, he looked at his cellphone for the time, then put the phone back into his pocket. He couldn't fool Papyrus; he saw that hidden look of impatience.

"BROTHER, IF YOU NEED SOMETHING TO DO, WHY DON'T YOU FINALLY PUT AWAY YOUR SOCK?"

"because you told me _not_ to bring it back to my room."

"THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT AND YOU KNOW IT!"

Sans chuckled as he checked his phone once more.

"welp, i'm gonna pick Fate up from tori's."

"OOH! WAIT FOR ME!"

"of course, pap."

Later, they arrived at the castle to find Fate full, bathed and exhausted. Toriel held her in her arms like an infant, seeing as she was basically ready to sleep.

What Fate said earlier still ran clearly in Sans' head, but he kept it in. It was an innocent observation. Somehow, she caught a glimpse of someone she wasn't supposed to see as they passed through the void when Sans teleported. Just a glimpse. There was no harm done. There is literally nothing he or anyone else could do about it. Even if she happens to see him again, nothing will change and he realizes he kind of over-reacted a little when she brought it up.

"GREETINGS, YOUR MAJESTY!" Papyrus said as he entered.

"hey tori. we're here."

"Greetings!" Toriel greeted them.

"Dada! Parus!" Fate said with less enthusiasm than normal due to sleepiness starting to set in.

"AH, TIRED, ARE WE?" Papyrus walked up to Toriel to take Fate. "THANK YOU FOR ALWAYS TAKING GOOD CARE OF HER." he said as he cradled Fate.

"You do not need to thank me, Papyrus. I am always overjoyed to do it."

With final thanks and goodbyes, they left. Halfway to the house, Papyrus thought of who she would decide to sleep with tonight since she likes to alternate regularly.

"SO, TINY FATE, WHO IS GOING TO HAVE TO SHARE THEIR BED WITH YOU TONIGHT?"

"Want Dada..."

Fate had started picking up more words from those regularly around her.

"IT SEEMS IT'S YOUR TURN AGAIN, BROTHER."

"lucky me." Sans wore a genuine smile.

"YOU SEEM VERY HAPPY."

"yeah. this taking-care-of-a-child business has it's perks."

"IT DEFINITELY DOES! AND SHE IS ADORABLE WHILE SHE SLEEPS!"

"she sure is."

"OOH, NOW I WISH SHE HAD PICKED ME!"

When they got home, Sans carefully laid down next to his daughter, delicately pulling her against his chest. He was content. Sure monsters weren't free, but this was good too. He listened to Fate's melodic breathing and let that lull him to sleep.

* * *

"Yes, that is rather odd, isn't it?"

Sans blinked as he sat at Grillby's bar, a burg in hand and a bottle of ketchup in perfect arm's reach.

He blinked again, confusion evident on his face as he stared at Grillby, mouth agape as if in the middle of a conversation. As realization hit him, the burger slipped from his gloved phalanges on the plate below.

 _ **He's done this before.** _He remembers he was having a conversation on how ridiculously expensive spider bake sales were. _It can't be. Time has been reset? That means the kid's back._

Sans suddenly stood up from his stool in a panicked hurry. _Something's missing._

"fate..."

"Pardon?" Grillby spoke, pulling Sans from thought.

"i left fate with pap, right?"

Sans spoke calmly, desperation threatening to explode out of him. He needs to hear his best friend say yes. _please, dear **asgore** , just say yes!_

"...Who is Fate, Sans?"

Sans' permanent smile disappeared. No no no, that can't be right. He fell asleep right next to her. He _held_ her as he fell asleep! Sans slammed his hands on the counter in a fit of anger, drawing the attention of other customers in the bar.

"the **b a b y** , grillbz! my daughter, fate! i introduced you to her!"

"Sans, please, calm down. You don't have a baby, let alone a daughter. Although...I feel as though I have heard that name before..."

 _this can't be happening._

As he walked toward the exit of the building, Grillby's voice sounded distant as he called after him; an almost jumbled nonsense as the door closed behind him.

 _this can't be happening..._

Sans teleported to the ruin's entrance, only to find it sealed shut, just like before. He put a shaking glove on the door, as if making sure it was really closed.

 _this can't be happening!_

He teleported back to Snowdin, expression more grim and dark. He needed to lie down.

"BROTHER?"

Papyrus spotted his brother shambling toward him and Undyne, who were hanging out in front of the house. He panicked ever-so-slightly, noticing his brother's expression. _**He was having a BAD TIME.**_ Whatever it was that made him this distraught, it was something big.

"SANS!" he flew over to him, closing the remaining gap between him and his brother immediately. "WHAT HAPPENED?!"

"Geez, Sans! What's gotten into you?!" Undyne was immediately by Papyrus' side, in case he needed help helping Sans.

"...fate's..." Sans muttered.

Papyrus and Undyne paused, waiting for him to continue.

"...inside...right?"

"OH YES!" Sans' eye lights flickered, HOPE building up in his SOUL.

 _he remembers her! she has to still be here!_

"SHE'S IN..." Papyrus trailed off, confusion growing on his features.

 _paps, please don't do this to me..._

"Who?" Undyne asked.

"I...COULD HAVE SWORN I HAVE HEARD THAT NAME SOMEWHERE BEFORE..."

Sans has to lie down. Before Papyrus and Undyne had another chance to speak to him again, he teleported to his room.

Sans woke up feeling disoriented, his mind waking up slowly. His hand subconsciously felt beside him, feeling for the tiny bundle of warmth who more than often slept beside him. His SOUL dropped when he couldn't feel fate, sitting up in a panicked hurry. His mind finally caught up and he remembered that time has been reset. That his precious child; **his daughter** has not fallen yet.

...

 ** _yet!_**

A wave of realization hit Sans. Fate fell a couple of months after Frisk disappeared. He's such a fool! Today is the day Frisk confronts Asgore and left the underground. Tomorrow it will take 3 months for Fate to fall. All he has to do is wait 3 months. He let himself fall back into bed, his whole body relaxed. He's been emotional lately, ever since he started taking care of little Fate. He felt another nap tug at him, so he decided to give in and let sleep take him away once more.

* * *

"SANS! WAKE UP, YOU LAZY BONES!"

His brother's voice never fails to wake him. He doesn't bother even sitting up and lifts an arm slightly to unlock the door with his magic, a soft click coming from the lock. Immediately, the door slammed open.

"'sup pap?"

"WHAT IS UP, BROTHER, IS THAT YOU HAVE BEEN NAPPING SINCE YESTERDAY AFTERNOON!"

 _holy asgore! seriously...?_

"geez, pap, why didn't you wake me up sooner?"

"WELL...YOU SEEMED VERY DISTRAUGHT ABOUT SOMETHING, SO I THOUGHT I SHOULD GIVE YOU SOME SPACE."

The ever thoughtful Papyrus. _man, is he cool..._

"I WAS WONDERING IF I COULD HELP YOU WITH THAT?"

"it's ok. i already figured it out."

"YOU DID?"

"yup." Sans stretched, trying to not pop his bones. "it had me all _tuckered_ out, so i _slept_ on it." Sans grinned.

"UGH..." Sans definitely isn't distraught anymore. "SINCE YOU'RE FEELING BETTER, HURRY AND GET READY!"

"we goin' somewhere?"

"TO KING ASGORE! WE HAVE TO MEET UP WITH THE HUMAN!"

Sans rose a bone brow. Why did they have to do that exactly? He knows Papyrus has his reasons and he hasn't eaten since he left Grillby's yesterday afternoon. He figured he'll go back, apologize and get something to eat while he's at it.

"you can go ahead. i'm gonna grab some grub."

"VERY WELL!" Papyrus sighed. "I WILL MEET YOU THERE."

"yup." Guess he'll see what's up when he gets there.

Sans walked into Grillby's, slightly embarrassed about his previous behavior and almost didn't look Grillby in the eyes.

"...Sans." Grillby greeted.

"hey, grillbz. so, uhh, sorry about yesterday. i wasn't thinking straight."

"...It was rather sudden."

"i know. don't know what got over me...and i was wonderin' if i could get a burg with fries?"

"Very well." Grillby sighed and immediately went to the kitchen. He came back out rather quickly.

What Sans said was still running in Grillby's mind. He was pretty adamant about a baby...But he knows for a fact Sans doesn't have a daughter, so why was he so crestfallen when he refused to know about a human toddler? _Wait..._

"thanks, bud." Sans pulled Grillby out of thought. "hit the spot, now i have to meet up with pap."

"If anything were to bother you again, you know you can speak to me."

Sans gave him a weird look for a fraction of a second. Of course he knows that, he's his best friend. He must still be thinking about yesterday. He let his smile grow genuine.

"of course, grill. i'll see ya later."

"...Take this with you."

Sans chuckled when he passed him a bottle of ketchup. He knows him well.

Sans took a shortcut to the Judgment Hall and walked the rest of the way there. He guessed Papyrus was already with the human and Asgore. He heard voices the closer he got and finally he found his brother not only with Asgore and the human, but also with Undyne, Alphys and an unknown lady that looked strangely alike to the king, but her horns were smaller and she wasn't as big as him.

"OH! HELLO YOUR MAJESTY!"

 _right, the queen._

"PSST! HEY, HUMAN..." Papyrus lowered his voice, but he was still heard by everyone. "DID ASGORE SHAVE...?"

 _that's funny._

"AND...CLONE HIMSELF?"

Sans held back some laughter as he made his presence known.

"hey guys...what's up?"

"That voice...!" the Queen immediately went before Sans, to properly speak to him and Papyrus narrowed his eyes as he stepped back to give her space. "Hello, I think we may...know each other?"

"oh hey...i recognize your voice, too..."

The voice from beyond the door leading to the ruins. This is definitely a good day, since this reunion is happening sooner than it happened last time.

"I am Toriel." she said. "So nice to meet you."

"the name's sans." he winked. "and uh, same."

"Oh, wait, then...!" her face lit up and turned to face the other skeleton. "This must be your brother, Papyrus!" Papyrus smiled at her upon hearing his name. "Greetings, Papyrus! It is so nice to finally meet you!" Papyrus' cheek bones lit up a soft pink color. "Your brother has told me so much about you."

"WOWIE...I CAN'T BELIEVE ASGORE'S CLONE KNOWS WHO I AM! THIS Is THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!"

"Hey, Papyrus...What does a skeleton tile his roof with?"

 _oh, this is gonna be good..._

"HMMM...SNOW-PROOF Roof TILES?"

"No silly! A skeleton tiles his roof with... _SHIN-gles!"_ Toriel giggled at her own joke.

Papyrus' eye sockets widened in surprised horror. "I CHANGED MY MIND! THIS IS THE WORST DAY OF MY LIFE!"

 _still the perfect woman i remembered she was._

Sans looked at Frisk to find them smiling, then they caught his eye lights and beamed. This is definitely a great day. Everyone bickered and rejoiced together for a little while before Toriel looked to the human, smiling. Everyone lined up to properly see Frisk, while Toriel told them that they might have to stay a little longer with their new friends. Then suddenly, thorns pop up out of nowhere and ensnared everyone in the room. A golden flower pops up smiling like a maniac, telling everyone that he's got the souls. He's got everyone trapped, including Frisk.

 _this flower again! are you serious?! when i get my hands on him—oh no you don't!_

Sans conjure magical bones to block an attack Flowey launched on the human following with encouraging words. The others continued helping the human and eventually the room was filled with monsters who were in the human's corner. Even Muffet was there to support Frisk, but Flowey feigned defeat. Sans felt his soul being sucked from his body and then everything went black.

He felt like he was floating, surrounded in nothing but an inky black so dark he couldn't even see his hands in front of his face. He would've begun to believe he didn't have any if he didn't touch his face.

What happened? Where am I? What was I doing before this? He couldn't remember. All he could feel was crippling defeat. He couldn't help anyone. He couldn't save anyone. Even a toddler escaped him. Getting to the surface was a dream he knew couldn't and wouldn't be achieved. All was lost, including himself and he knew it. Nothing was worth it and so he continued to float. All the energy seemed to lift from his bones as every negative thought invaded his mind. All of a sudden, the negativity seemed to ebb away. A flash made everything blindingly white and suddenly, he was standing between Toriel and Papyrus. There was a certain light feeling in the air, the crackle of dense magic nowhere to be found.

 **The barrier has been broken?**

Frisk lay on the ground and a wave of worry and panic surrounded the room as everyone rushed to the human to check for any injuries. Frisk stirred when Toriel rubbed their head.

"Frisk!"

When Frisk stood up, everyone collectively relaxed.

With the barrier broken, everyone decided to go up together after Frisk came back from their stroll. The sun was beautiful as it bathed everything in a breathtaking orange. The air was so crisp and fresh, everyone couldn't help but take in a hefty gulp. Everyone was overflowing with joy. Frisk agreed to be the ambassador for monsters and in a fit of glee, Papyrus ran off saying he was going to make a good first impression as the monster's new mascot.

By far, the best day of Sans' life.

"welp. someone's gotta keep him from getting into trouble. see you guys."

 _now would a good time to check that flower bed. just in case..._

Sans teleported himself right in front of it and his eye lights carefully scanned through it. Nada. Shit, he's really got to wait 3 months? This is gonna suck...He teleported out of there, set on finding Papyrus before he scares someone to death.

* * *

It was a rough couple of months. With the sudden appearance of hundreds of monsters, the humans were in a state of fear and confusion. At the moment, a law was recently passed to prevent any problems from arising: No harm should come to monsters unless provoked and since all monsters were harmless, there weren't any worries of the new law being broken.

Compared to humans, monsters were the minority. Hundreds against billions. The monsters traveled and spread all around the world. Frisk was trying their best to be the best ambassador the monsters could have. A shaky start, in fact it's still shaky, but the passing of that law was a victory in their eyes.

Fortunately, the friends all found lodging and jobs to sustain themselves. Sans cashed in the rare currency they were using underground as soon as he found out just how valuable they were. In all of his lazy years, that was the fastest he ever moved. He was going to make damn sure he and his brother didn't have to worry about finances for a long time, especially with the big stash he had hidden away in case of an emergency. Sans deemed it emergency enough!

Papyrus bought his long awaited red convertible and Sans got himself a small motorcycle. Relatively cheap and effective. Sans was even working on a degree in Science. Things were more than he could ever dream of.

He's just missing _one_ thing.

He's visited the flower bed a couple times a month, just in case. After all, the time for the face-to-face with Toriel shortened considerably, who knows if Fate's time to fall would shorten as well. He even looked for her when he found himself among other people. Nothing as of yet. Considering that Fate falls on the same day, only a week remains and to say that Sans is getting impatient is an understatement. He would begin pacing around their home without realizing, causing his brother to become concerned. He would always wave it off with or without a pun, but that didn't convince Papyrus in the slightest.

Sans had it all planned out. Fate was already there when Papyrus went to water the flowers. That was in the afternoon, which means she must have fallen somewhere closer to noon. According to what Papyrus had said before, she was asleep in the flower bed. Sans knows for a fact that unless she was all tuckered out, Fate does not fall asleep that easily which means she was there for at the very least an hour. There's no way he could know exactly how long the kid was there, but this seemed like a good start.

As soon as Sans figured that he should stop worrying, the week came by faster. He informed Papyrus the night before that there was something he had to pick up in the underground and when Papyrus asked what, he simply stated: "It's something I can't get anywhere else." That didn't exactly answer the question, but Papyrus took it nonetheless.

Sans teleported through the underground, determined to get there before the little toddler fell. He wanted to be the one to catch her. The closer he neared, the louder he heard a certain flower humming (his own theme) accompanied with whining noises that were dying down the longer he hummed.

No way. She fell already? If that flower laid an ill will to even one strand of hair on her precious head...Just thinking about it makes his non-existent blood boil. He stopped short of the room to make himself calm down. He shouldn't go in there eye-a-blazing blindingly. When he thought he was ready, he stepped through with a calm walk and continued until he clearly saw what the flower was doing. Flowey was doing a sort of weird rocking motion with a few clean vines.

He was rocking her to sleep?

"About time you got here, smiling trash bag." Flowey spoke softly. "I just got her to stop her annoying crying. **Making me do all the work I see."** he gave him a creepy smile, not appreciating how long Sans took to get there.

"well..." he closed his eyes, but when he opened them again his eye lights had gone out. "instead of going through all of that bullshit before, you could have let me know when she fell...ey, _asriel?"_

"...Just shut up and take her!" Flowey half-shouted, hissing. He really didn't want to make her cry again, it felt as if his non-existent ears were going to bleed.

Oops...Even with that, the toddler started to whine. Carefully, Sans picked her, letting her head rest on his shoulder. Slowly, she readjusted her head into the crook of his neck, and she breathed in a deep breath of a familiar scent in her sleep. Sans let out a silent contented sigh, relief washing over his bones like a tidal wave. He finally had her. His little girl...How long he waited for this. He held her against him a bit more protectively and turned, but before teleporting back, he paused.

"thank you for catching her."

Although Flowey was truly a pain in Sans' non-existent ass, he did save her. Not only once, but twice now. The flower visibly bristled at his sincere words. It grossed him out.

"Whatever! Go away already so I can sleep!"

 _proud idiot..._

Teleporting was starting to wear him out, so he decided to take long teleport strides to finally just be home again with his final prize. By the time he did get home, he was exhausted and opted on landing on the couch and taking a nice nap, letting Fate continue her sleep on his chest.

* * *

Papyrus was perplexed.

He found his brother sleeping on the couch with a tiny human child. Where did this child come from, first of all and second...why was she so familiar...? Papyrus personally thought it would have been better if his brother took his naps in his room. Usually he would wake him up and Sans would waddle up the stairs and into his bed, but...the pair looked so peaceful, he didn't have the heart to disturb them. Mainly because he's a skeleton, but it's the sentiment that counts. So, Papyrus quietly covered them with an extra blanket he had neatly tucked away and went into the kitchen to start on a lasagna dish he had recently mastered—a specialty exclusive for guests...and maybe for special occasions as well.

Fate was later awoken by her hunger, waking with a slight start and whined. The sound and movement immediately woke up Sans, who sleepily looked down at her and let his perma-grin turn genuine.

"heya, princess." he greeted her and immediately got her attention.

She stared at him a moment and Sans could practically see the wheels in her head turning. Suddenly, she took his face with both of her tiny hands and nuzzled her face into his.

"Dada..." she said softly.

 _Dear Asgore_ , she remembers him! Sans suddenly shot up, hugging her tightly against him. His SOUL soared to the heavens and back. His little girl really remembers him!

"SANS, YOU AND THE TINY HUMAN SHOULD GET UP FOR—OH. IF YOU WERE ALREADY UP, WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY ANYTHING?"

"Parus!" Fate exclaimed, pointing a chubby finger at Papyrus.

"THE TINY HUMAN KNOWS MY NAME?!" Papyrus gasped, a sprinkle of orange crossing his cheek bones. "I HAVE GOTTEN SO POPULAR THAT EVEN TINY HUMANS REMEMBER MY NAME! BUT AN EASY FEAT FOR THE GREAT PAPYRUS! NYEH-HEH-HEH-HEH!" he scooped Fate from Sans and held her up high, smiling. Fate giggled, having fun at the sudden height change.

Suddenly, Papyrus paused, remembering a small human toddler he came across on the golden flower bed before the entrance of the ruins and he gasped, hugging her as tightly as her tiny body can handle.

"OH TINY FATE, I AM SO GLAD TO HAVE YOU BACK WITH US!"

"bro?"

"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME TINY FATE WAS BACK, BROTHER?!"

Sans paused for a fraction of a second, his eye lights growing in happiness. "heh. i didn't think you would have believed me."

"BUT OF COURSE I WOULD BELIEVE YOU!"

Papyrus was interrupted as Fate took his face with both her hands and nuzzled his face as well.

"AWW! I MISSED YOU TOO, TINY ONE!" Papyrus held her out for Sans to take. "WILL SHE BE STAYING WITH US AGAIN?"

"yes she is, pap. and she's here to stay for good."

"HOW WONDERFUL! I WAS RIGHT TO MAKE MY SPECIAL LASAGNA!"

"heh, makes total _sauce_." Sans said while standing, gently taking Fate from Papyrus.

"SANS!"

 _better tell tori about this. maybe after dinner. i'm sure fate would love to see her._

* * *

I'm thinking up a sequel to this story where it tells an extended story of an older reader. Thank you so much for reading!

I was also thinking of making this a kind of theme, where toddler Reader falls into the Underground or even meet up in the surface, but in different timelines. There are surely to be different reactions and different ways the skelebros raise the reader. Maybe I'll even do an extended older reader story to those as well! It's just a thought, but it sounds like fun! Let me know what you guys think!

Until next time~


	2. UT Sans - My Child part 2

Hello everyone! I'm sorry for the super late update, but here is chapter 2! I hope you enjoy!

A/n: This story will most likely be posted on first. My ID is Koyukiy.

* * *

"Daddy?"

"princess?"

Sans was slouched in the living room couch, lazily watching a program Mettaton starred in on TV with half lidded eye sockets, until his daughter came up to him. Upon looking at her form, he straightened up, giving her his full attention and waited.

"I made you something at school today."

Little Fate, now 6 years old, looked at her adoptive father with a soft blush on her cheeks. She worked hard on her little project, and was even excited to gift it to him, but now that the time came, she felt bashful. What if he didn't like it after all?

He knew she was acting a little secretive when he picked her up from school today. He decided to leave it, however, thinking that when she felt comfortable, she would come to him.

Anything his daughter makes is precious to him, even if what she made resembled a blob to him when it was supposed to be a cat. So with silent glee and enlarged eye lights filled with happiness, he patiently waited for her to pull a piece of paper out from behind her back.

A water-color painting. It looked like a bunch yellow blobs with green sticks holding them up on the bottom of the page in front of a blue sky. There were white blobs on the top of the page and a yellow circle in the top left corner.

So it was a painting of a field of yellow flowers, the blue sky, clouds and the sun, Sans concluded. It was one of the most beautiful paintings he had ever seen in his life.

"it's beautiful." he announced, love clear in his voice.

"You like it?"

"i love it. thank you, sweetheart."

Fate's whole face lit up, sporting a big, happy smile. One of the biggest he's seen. Something about him praising her always put the biggest smiles on her face. She bounced in place, giggling in glee.

"I remember you said uncle Papy found me hiding in golden flowers. So I made the flowers for you!"

"best present i ever got."

She crawled into her father's big lap and hugged him, snuggling into him.

"I love you, daddy."

"love you to the _heavens_ and back, princess." he said as he hugged her back.

Fate gave him a look, but couldn't help but giggle at his pun. _Oh here we go..._

"what, can't i praise my _golden_ child?"

"Daddy!"

" _water_ you want? you've always _colored_ my world."

"No! No more puns!" she cried, covering his teeth with her small hands.

"you're smiling~" he sang in a clear voice, her hands doing nothing to so much as muffle him.

"I am and I hate it!" she borrowed a quote she once heard from her uncle.

Sans' grin grew and he hugged her against his side, a comfortable silence settling in. Finally noticing a familiar robotic voice, she turned to the T.V and marveled at it.

"Ton Ton is on T.V!" she pointed, happily. "He made it, like he said he would!"

"he sure did. 's nice to see him performing again."

The comfortable silence returned as they watched TV together, before Fate spoke up again.

"...How come no one else is home?"

Oh yeah. He almost forgot why it was so quiet.

Two years ago Fate had expressed something equivalent to "A mama and daddy should be living together!" because of what she often saw on T.V when it came to families. After that, Sans, Toriel, Papyrus and Frisk got together and talked about possibly moving into a bigger place to live together. Now they lived in a five bedroom house, each person having their own room.

Fate had even talked about Asgore living with them, but that was still a work in progress since Toriel has yet to forgive him. One of the times Alphys and Undyne came over, Fate invited them to live with them also, but the two kindly refused, saying they wanted to live with each other only.

Today, Sans remembered Frisk said something about meeting with Asgore with Papyrus accompanying him, exclaiming something about being the mascot and Toriel had called out to him saying that she was going grocery shopping.

"tori's out shopping and pap and frisk's visiting fluffy buns."

"Oh."

Silence fell between the two once more, but something about this silence was a bit off, kind of protective, almost. Not wrong, but somehow off.

"hey, ya hungry?" Sans suddenly asked. "tori's not gonna be home for a while."

"A little." Fate admitted.

"how about grillby's?"

"Yeah!" her face immediately lit up.

"alright. get your shoes on."

"OK!" she excitedly hurried away to her room. It's been a while since she's seen Grillby.

Sans waited until she climbed up the stairs toward the bedrooms to turn suspicious eye lights to the window behind him. He felt like someone was watching them for a moment there. If he didn't know better, he would suspect Flowey, but the flower had been adamant about staying in the underground. Frisk had even tried to convince him and he had said that he won't stop until he gets him to finally agree, so he's crossed off the list.

Sans didn't like it. Not one bit and as soon as Fate is ready, he's going to make sure that whoever it is doesn't know where they're headed. Sans put Fate's painting on the fridge, a stray magnet he found keeping it in place.

"Ready, Daddy!" she said as she hurried down the stairs.

"let's go." he said as he opened his arms to her.

She had a running start, leaping into his arms and gave him a tight hug. As soon as she securely landed in his arms, he shortcutted directly in front of Grillby's new establishment, Fate giggling at her own disorientation. It happens every time he teleports with her. Balancing her on one of his arms, Sans opened the door and walked in.

Humans and monster alike were gathered inside. This place had become popular with the humans due to the interesting monster food and drinks. The monster food converts directly into energy, while the drinks had different magical properties and effects, the colors differentiating one from the other. Grillby's was the first bar/restaurant where both monster and humans let loose and enjoyed each other's company.

The establishment itself had the same layout and colors as it did underground, if not larger to accommodate for the increase in customers, complete with a jukebox that rested in the corner to the right of the bar. This one was not broken.

Sans sauntered up to his usual stool at the bar and set Fate down on the seat next to him.

"Sans, Fate." Grillby greeted.

"Hi, uncle Grillby!" Fate held her hand up in greeting and Grillby smiled, taking it and holding her hand for a moment.

"heya, grillbz. how's everything?"

"Busy as usual...Everyday is busier than the last."

"with all the new customers, i can only imagine."

"Uncle Grillby." Fate called for his attention. "Can I have a burg with fries?"

Both Sans and Grillby chuckled at how straightforward she was.

"i'll have the same, if ya don't mind."

"Of course." Grillby crackled happily and quickly disappeared into the kitchen.

"so, how was school?" Sans conversated.

"It wasn't bad today."

Sans paused. _'Today?'_ What was that supposed to mean? He knew that Fate was falling a little bit behind, but it wasn't that bad.

"it's ok to feel kinda lost. how about i help you with your homework when we get back?"

"I did my homework at free time."

Then what was the "bad" in all this? Just as Sans was about to question her, Grillby set down their meals in front of them, then handed Fate a glass of apple juice and Sans a ketchup bottle.

"thanks, buddy."

Grillby stared at the two for a moment noticing the sudden small shift of air between them.

"...What seems to be the problem?"

"having _trouble_ figuring that out myself..." Sans answered.

That just gave Grillby more questions, but was unable to get answers for now since business called.

Once Fate finished eating, she thanked the fire elemental for yet another delicious meal, then hopped off the stool to converse with some dog monsters she recognized. Sans watched her smile as she greeted them.

"she just told me something strange." Sans spoke to Grillby. "i asked her about school and she said it 'wasn't that bad today'. never got that answer before."

"That does sound quite mysterious."

"thing is, i know all about how she's faring in school, plus tori's both her homeroom and reading teacher. we even alternate who gets her home."

"Perhaps there's something more going on behind the scenes. Maybe during school hours?"

"i really hope not." Sans' expression turned unreadable.

"...Talking to her should do the trick. If not, watching her more carefully will reveal the truth." Having a daughter himself, Grillby knew all too well about what he thought could be happening.

Sans nodded, then stood from his stool as he called out to bring Fate back to him. She quickly said her goodbyes to the dogs, who were disappointed to see her leave so soon, and smiled at Sans as she reached him.

"we should get back." Sans told her.

"Aw...Ok. See you later, uncle Grillby." she climbed onto a stool again to give him a peck on the cheek.

"See you later, precious." he crackled softly as he smiled at her.

He then gave Sans a patient smile, a silent good luck and Sans returned it with a thank you smile. He remembered that unpleasant feeling of being watched from earlier and decided one last shortcut back home should do the trick as he stepped outside.

He helped her get into home wear clothes, just in time for Frisk and Papyrus to return home.

"WE HAVE RETURNED!" Papyrus loudly announced as he entered the house, Frisk following close behind him.

"welcome back." Sans greeted them with his signature lazy grin as Fate ran up to them excitedly.

"Welcome home!" she exclaimed happily and started to gossip with Papyrus. "Ton Ton made it on T.V! He was on before."

"DID I MISS IT?!" He gasped in an exaggerated fashion. "LET US FIND OUT TOGETHER, NIECE!" he scooped her up and walked briskly to the living room, Fate giggling with the sudden change in height.

"kid," Sans stopped Frisk before he lost his chance. "i wanna ask you something."

Frisk noticed how serious he was being, taking a wild guess that maybe it had to do with his daughter.

"did you happen to notice anything going on with fate at school?"

 _Thought so._ Frisk stared at Sans, thoughtfully going through his memories.

"Well..." Frisk spoke in his naturally small voice. "Sometimes I see her at recess from my classroom window. She has two friends she plays with, but I see her playing by herself a lot..." Frisk slipped back into thought.

By herself? If she has friends, why would she be playing alone?

"But I did notice something kind of off. Some time ago, three kids approached her while she was playing by herself. She looked kind of confused and it didn't look like they were trying to play with her."

Oh hell no.

"They were standing kind of close, then they walked away from her and recess was over. I was planning on telling you if it happened again, but it never did."

Sans noticed that Frisk is a bit protective of Fate, so it was strange to not hear about this sooner.

"As far as I know, that's the only suspicious thing I noticed, although it didn't look like much. I've been keeping an eye on her."

"i 'ppreciate that, kid."

"Of course. She's part of the family! The older sibling is supposed to look out for the younger!"

"ya got that right." Sans chuckled and ruffled Frisk's hair, Frisk chuckling along with him.

"I'm home, everyone!" Toriel opened the front door, holding three grocery bags in one arm.

"Welcome back, mom."

"Mama!" came Fate's voice from the other room.

"Thank you, my child." Toriel spoke to Frisk as Fate ran up and embraced her. "Hello, my little one!" Toriel giggled. "Sans, can you help me with the rest of the bags?"

"sure thing, tor."

"I'LL HELP TOO!" Papyrus piped up, walking up behind Sans, then promptly hurried away.

"Thank you, boys. I will start on dinner."

"hey, tori?" Sans called out as he entered the kitchen, grocery bags floating after him via blue magic. He set them on the counter next to Toriel, who was currently rinsing some ingredients under the running sink water.

"Yes, dear?"

"you notice anything going on with fate at school?"

"No..." Toriel answered after a pause. "Why? Did she say something?"

"somethin' like that." Sans nodded as Papyrus set his portion of the grocery bags on the dining table.

"DID SOMETHING HAPPEN TO LITTLE FATE?" Papyrus grew concerned.

"don't know anything for sure yet. just that she said something weird when i asked about school.'

"What do you think it might be?" Toriel asked, now worried.

"YOU DON'T THINK THAT, PERHAPS, SHE'S BEING BULLIED?"

Papyrus, although over-exaggerating the situation with the little information he had, hit the nail on the head.

"that's what i'm thinking. again, i don't know anything for sure, i only wanted to let you know just in case."

"Well, let us talk to her. Perhaps she will tell us." Toriel suggested.

Sans nodded, muttering a soft "yeah." as Papyrus volunteered himself and fetched her. Frisk followed him to the kitchen in case he was needed. Papyrus set her down on one of the dining chairs and Fate looked at the three adults in confusion.

"My child," Toriel started, kneeling down to her level in front of her. "We wanted to ask you if anyone was being mean to you at school?"

"No."

There was a collective relief in the air, but it quickly changed to slight worry when she spoke again.

"Dean wasn't at school today."

Who was Dean? And how is that relevant to this conversation?

"what's that mean, sweet pea?" Sans questioned beside Toriel.

"Dean said I can't tell. It's a secret."

This Dean kid is going to find another secret to keep if he's messing with his little girl!

"WE'RE WORRIED ABOUT YOU, NIECE. WON'T YOU PLEASE TELL US YOUR SECRET?" Papyrus piped up on Toriel's unoccupied side, holding his hands as if he's about to start wringing them.

"Fate. If Dean isn't being nice, you should tell us." Frisk spoke up this time, walking to stand next to her. "How are we supposed to know how you're feeling if you keep secrets about Dean?"

Looking at the worried faces of her family filled Fate with UNDERSTANDING.

"Sorry..." Fate's gaze fell to the rim of her shirt, which she started to play with. "Dean is not nice, but his friends aren't bad." she finally confessed.

Now that he knows, it's not a _secret_ what Sans wants to do to this kid.

"What is Dean doing to you?" Toriel further questioned.

Sans, Papyrus and even Frisk noticed the underlining protectiveness starting to ease out of Toriel. No one is going to bully her little girl if she had anything to say about it!

"He says mean things about how my real mama and daddy didn't want me. He says that's why I have monsters for a mama and daddy."

Frisk felt disgusted. That kid was younger than him, he could tell that much. Kids don't think about things like that unless someone of higher authority is talking like that around them. After four years of their release from the Underground, that's the kind of talk that Monsters everywhere are still dealing with.

It's dwindled down, sure, but Frisk wasn't naive enough to believe that everyone accepted the relatively new race, no matter how normal it was to see Monsters living everyday life alongside humans.

It was saddening to see racism rear it's ugly head.

Feeling the protective auras from family members and watching his little sister tear up filled him with DETERMINATION.

"FATE, DON'T YOU WORRY ABOUT WHAT THAT BULLY SAYS TO YOU!" Papyrus encouraged. "EVERYONE KNOWS THAT BULLIES BULLY BECAUSE THEY ARE JEALOUS!" he struck a pose. "AND JEALOUS THEY SHOULD FEEL, FOR THEY DO NOT HAVE THE AMAZING AND HANDSOME PAPYRUS AS HIS UNCLE!"

"That is right, Fate." Toriel scooped her into her arms. "You need not worry about Dean any longer. I will bring this up at school tomorrow."

"I understand." Fate replied, with a hint of tears in her voice. "But I don't want him to get in trouble because he's jealous."

Bless this little child's SOUL. Her reply made everyone more determined to make sure she never has to deal with this kid ever again.

"he's not getting in trouble for feeling jealous, fate." Sans spoke softly. "he's getting in trouble for being mean to you."

With that, the conversation ended and Frisk thought it a good idea to get Fate's mind off of that and play until dinner was ready.

He took her hand and lead her out of the kitchen, asking if she wanted to play her favorite game with him and she happily agreed. Toriel asked Papyrus if he would like to help with dinner, which he over-excitedly agreed to and Sans stayed in the kitchen, slipping onto one of the dining table chairs.

He needs to calm himself down and what better way than to watch dinner being made.

Dinner was delicious as always and topping it with Toriel's famous butterscotch cinnamon pie, made it absolute heaven.

Frisk made sure to save a portion of dinner and dessert for Asgore, knowing how he can forget to eat and although Toriel doesn't forgive him, she's not cruel enough to stop Frisk. On the contrary, she encouraged it and helped him pack it, simply for the fact that the poor fool had actually tried working on an empty stomach and nearly collapsed. Toriel fed him herself that day, and gave him an earful for the entirety of her stay.

Toriel asked Papyrus to deliver it and to come back quickly to avoid staying out at night as Sans took Fate for her bath time.

Sans had started to get nervous when Fate started to ask for privacy when using the bathroom, so instead he had asked Toriel to help her bathe, but eventually she even started to turn Toriel away.

"I wanna take a shower today." Fate snapped Sans from his memories.

"okay." he replied. "remember that the tub is non-slip now."

"Okay."

"if you need any help at all, call me."

"Okay."

"your towel's already in there. you washing your hair today?" he asked when they reached the bathroom.

"No."

"make sure you don't keep your head under the running shower head for too long."

"Okay."

"and make sure you—"

"I understand, Daddy." Fate interrupted him. "I'm a big girl now!"

Sans sighed. "i know you are, princess." he watched as she entered, taking the door handle to close the door and right before she did, "call me when you're finished!"

The door clicked closed. "Daddy!" he heard her muffled complaint from the other side and he chuckled in amusement.

In the time it took for Papyrus to leave the house and come back, it took Fate to shower herself. Papyrus then took his turn for the shower as she readied herself for bed.

Like always, Sans tucked Fate in and gave her a good night kiss on the forehead before muttering a loving, "good night."

"Good night, daddy."

Her bedroom closed behind him. With her belly full, it didn't take long for her to fall into slumber.

* * *

A thump stirred Fate to a half awake state. Someone was in her room, she concluded, but she knew it was most likely her father. She knew he checked up on her at least twice before going to bed. She memorized it from the couple of times she was having a hard time falling asleep; he always waited at least 1-2 hours in between checking on her and would sometimes silently enter her room if he couldn't correctly gauge whether she was really sleeping or not, so this wasn't a surprise.

Who she supposed was her father stopped beside her bed and she continued to feign full sleep mode. He can usually tell if she was awake at all, but if he knew she was legitimately trying to go back to sleep—like she was now—he would leave her be, sometimes with a last good night kiss.

He leaned over, but instead of feeling a skeletal kiss, she suddenly smelled something sweet and it was putting her back to sleep.

Something wasn't right, she felt, but her falling consciousness was preventing her from doing anything and finally, her consciousness left her.

* * *

"Sans! Wake up! Please!"

He grunted as someone shook him, cracking an eye socket open, the eye light dim from drowsiness.

"tori...?" he was going to greet her with a pun, but stopped himself when he saw her panicked expression. He didn't even have a chance to ask her what was wrong.

"Fate is not in her bed!"

Instantly, he sprung up, his eye sockets void of eye lights.

"I guessed she was in here..." Toriel watched him with anxious eyes as he rushed out of bed, grabbing his blue sweater which he kept at arms reach from the bed.

"what about frisk? or paps?" he hastily asked.

"I asked Papyrus about her after I woke Frisk, since I did not find her in bed. But Sans, her window is broken!" Now she was tearing up.

 _ **w h a t?!**_

Sans headed down the hall to Fate's room and sure enough there was a half broken window and glass on the carpet. Anger started to pool into his magic, threatening to come out, but he kept himself in check as he headed downstairs with Toriel close behind him.

There, he found Papyrus nervously wringing his gloved hands, his face full of worry and Frisk standing next to him, already dressed for school, but was trying to calm Papyrus.

"We'll find her."

"IF SHE DIDN'T SLEEP WITH YOU OR I OR MISS TORIEL, SURELY SHE MUST HAVE SLEPT WITH SANS! ...RIGHT?"

Noticing Sans and Toriel coming down the stairs, Sans' dark socketed expression dashed Papyrus' hopes away, leaving a feeling dread in his SOUL.

"tori, you and frisk should go to school." Sans calmly instructed, his eye lights returning. "me and paps will find her."

"But I—" "I want to help, Sans!" Frisk and Toriel spoke simultaneously.

"don't let this ruin your perfect attendance." he spoke to the both of them. "i'll let our friends know. we will find her. you two focus on work.

He was right. They can't focus on looking for Fate and go to school, so with heavy hearts they left the house, leaving Sans to take care of it. Sans watched them on their way and when the door closed, he pulled out his phone.

"i'll let grillby know. have him keep a look out."

"I WILL CONTACT UNDYNE! SHE IS LIKELY WITH ALPHYS AND ALPHYS IS GREAT AT SPREADING THE WORD."

"good idea, pap." Sans said, with his cell to his skull. Despite being a busy monster, Grillby picked up fairly quickly. "hey, i have a problem...fate's missing." Sans dragged a hand down his face, the stress rolling over him. "thanks, grillbz, it'll be a real help."

As Sans hung up with Grillby, Papyrus was on the phone with Undyne and he could hear her loud voice through his phone.

 _ **"I'll make the punk who took her pay!"**_

"I'D SAY WE PUNISH WHO IS RESPONSIBLE AFTER WE FIND HER!"

 _"I'll put up a missing child alert to let everyone else aware. You can count of us, Papyrus! We'll find her if the last thing we do! Right, Alphys?"_

 _"I-I can s-spread the word and hack i-into the s-security cameras around the c-city."_

"THANK YOU, UNDYNE AND ALPHYS!"

 _"No problem, Pap!"_ Undyne replied and Papyrus hung up.

"i'm gonna take a look outside. maybe i can get some info."

"AND I WILL STAY HERE! IN THE OFF-CHANCE FATE COMES BACK..."

"alright." and Sans was out the door.

* * *

Fate woke up slowly, more dazed and groggy than normal when waking. As her surroundings faded in, she realized she wasn't in her bed, but on someone's couch? Last she remembers, she went to sleep in her own bed!

"Oh! Awake, sweety pie?"

She turned her head to see an unfamiliar man. He was skinny and seemed to be in his late 30's, with thinning black hair. He seemed unremarkable, not handsome, but not ugly either. His eyes were soft as he looked at Fate and he seemed to be making an effort to not scare her.

"Where's my daddy?" she sat up as she spoke, trying to rub the leftover grogginess out of her eyes.

"Here we are." the man had quietly left without her noticing and fetched a little breakfast he had prepared: eggs over easy, sweet sausage and toast. "You must be hungry. Go ahead and eat, I've got more if you want seconds."

That looks really good. Smelling the food in front of her made her stomach tell her just how hungry she really was, so without further thought, she picked up the fork provided and dug in. The man happily celebrated silently and poured a glass of orange juice he had nearby. Good, if she's eating, there has to be some form of trust, right?

"Do you like it?"

Fate simply nodded, her mouth full. Another silent celebration. Halfway done with her food, Fate paused to take a drink of orange juice until she suddenly stopped altogether. There's still a complete stranger staring at her.

"Do you know my daddy?" she asked after putting everything down.

"Yes, I know of your so-called father."

So-called? That's a weird way of putting it.

"When is he coming back?"

"I don't know, but I'm sure we'll meet him soon."

"What about my mama?"

"We'll meet her soon as well."

Fate sensed that something wasn't quite right, so she decided to test the waters.

"...Do you know about the Great Papyrus?"

"No." the man smiled at her. "Why don't you tell me?"

Oh no. Not even Papyrus knows she's here? As the realization sunk in, she couldn't stop herself from crying.

"Oh no! What is it? Why are you crying?"

When the man closed in, Fate rushed off the couch, dropping the plate with the rest of her breakfast.

"Mama! Daddy!" she continued to cry.

"I'll reunite you with your parents, please calm down—"

"Y-You're lying!"

"No...No, I'm not lying."

"You stole me!"

* * *

Nothing.

Sans asked everyone he ran into and not one gave him any solid leads. The stress of having nothing to go on was making him lose his sense of direction.

What is he supposed to do now? Who does he turn to for help?

Suddenly, his cell rang and he shakily reached into the pockets of his sweater and pulled it out.

 _"Sans!"_ he wasn't given the chance to say hello. _"I caught something weird on a street security camera! Come over right away!"_ Alphys' stutter was completely gone, the find had her entirely engrossed.

Immediately, Sans appeared inside Alphys' shared apartment, the doctor not even batting an eye as she was fully aware he was going to do that. She already had some footage ballooned up to fit her whole screen on her laptop.

"This footage right here. It seems like this guy is coming from the direction of your home at 3:17 AM." Alphys pointed at what looked liked a human male holding a large bundle in his arms hurrying along to cross a street. "This seemed pretty suspicious to me, so let me just close in..." After freezing the image, she proceeded to match her actions with what she was doing on her laptop computer screen. "Brighten it up since it's dark, clear up the image and...O-Oh, dear..."

The image cleared enough to see a human male holding a child. Sans once again felt his magic flare in anger. When he catches this guy, he's going to have a _**e**_.

"Okay." Alphys brought Sans back from his dark thoughts. "Now we just have to follow him through the rest of the security cameras to figure out where he's going." She typed at her computer as she spoke, clicking on separate security camera footages when the man disappeared from one and appeared on another. "This will take a little while Sans."

He knew that it would, but he was too anxious, too angry to sit down. He paced around the room and when he stood still at any point, he would drum his fingers on any flat surface that happens to be near him. Finally after what seemed like hours, but was actually 20 minutes, Alphys spoke up.

"Found her!" she cried out, Sans rushed back to her side to look at the computer screen. She had a map up that tracked the order of the security camera footages. She typed a couple more keystrokes, pulling up an address and a picture of the house via Google maps. "Now, Sans, I need you to calm down before you—"

Alphys turned to face him, only to find that he was already gone. She panicked, fearing the worse for the human male and quickly phoned Undyne.

Kidnapper or not, Sans is in a state where he will seriously injure this human.

"U-Undyne! I have the k-kidnappers address, but Sans is already o-on his way. You have to h-hurry, before he d-does something he m-might regret!"

 _"Don't worry, Alphys! I'm on it!"_

* * *

Sans stood in front of the house with sockets still devoid of eye lights, the address ingrained into his skull. This is it, he knows for a fact, having seen the front of the house on Alphys' screen. In the fogginess of his anger, his clear conscience rang out, speaking to him; telling him that if he doesn't calm down at least a little, he might do something that will harm the thin balance between human and monsters. It's so very fragile, this balance, that if he goes after this human with this much aggression, however justified, it will put a bad mark on monsters as a whole.

He needs to cool down. He tried to do so desperately, clenching and un-clenching his fists.

 _cool down. cool down. cool down. cool down—_

A loud siren broke through his inner mantra, a police car riding in front of the house. Undyne quickly emerged, calling out to him, Doggo emerging after her.

"Let me handle this." she gruffly exclaimed. "This is something you should let the authorities take care of."

Undyne stared at him with an intense gaze and he matched it with as much intensity.

"my _daughter's_ in there, undyne."

"I know she is, Sans, but just let me handle it. Alright?"

Sans stared at her face for a few seconds, before finally forcing himself to back down.

"alright." he sighed.

"Why don't you wait by the car?" Undyne pressed a firm, reassuring hand on his shoulder. "I'll get little Fate out of there."

Doggo gave him a firm nod, in agreement with Undyne. Sans gave them a hopeful gaze, before turning to walk to the car. When he reached it, Undyne practically oozed authority as she walked up, reached out and firmly knocked at the door. She could have sworn she heard a child crying against the silence of the neighborhood, but the noise went quiet as she knocked.

"Did ya hear that?" she asked Doggo to double confirm.

"I heard a child crying."

"Just checking."

She nodded at him and turned back to the door, waiting. When she didn't get an answer, she knocked again, a little harder this time. She was about to knock for a third time when finally there was shuffling on the other side of the door. After a moment, the door opened.

"Hello, officers. What brings you knocking on my door?"

It was a man who answered. He appeared to be in his 30's and had black, thinning hair. He wore a thin, tight smile, almost as if he was forcing it.

"I got a report of a missing child being held in this house." she brought out a missing child report from her back pocket and presented it to him.

Undyne watched his reaction carefully. At the mention of a missing child, he seemed to flinch, a small reaction she would have missed if she wasn't paying attention.

"How would you get a report like that? I don't have any children!"

"Then you wouldn't mind if I checked your home?"

"This is ridiculous! I told you I don't have children! I won't permit you to enter my home without proof!"

Doggo took it upon himself to sniff at the man then started a low growl. "Undyne."

With just her name, she knew what he meant. Undyne glared at the human and with furrowed brows she sucked in a big gulp of air.

 _ **"FATE! IF YOU'RE IN HERE, GIVE ME YOUR BIGGEST IMPRESSION OF THE BEST DOOFUS IN TOWN!"**_

Undyne was the so loud, the man had to cover his ears or they would have started to ring. Even Sans and Doggo flinched at her sudden outburst.

 _"The Great Papyrus is a skeleton with standards!"_ her voice seemed to be a bit muffled.

The man stiffened and Undyne snarled at the human, Doggo growling viciously beside her.

 _"You are under arrest for kidnapping! Doggo, go!"_ Undyne demanded, quickly detaining him with handcuffs.

The man's protests fell on deaf ears as Doggo acted immediately, sniffing her out when he didn't find her right away. He found her hidden away in a small closet in the living room.

"Doggo!" Fate immediately clung to him, crying into the fur on his shoulder as he picked her up.

"You're safe now." he said, rubbing her back in a circular motion as he made his way to the house's front door.

Doggo found Undyne pushing the man into the back of her cop car.

"Auntie Undyne!" Fate cried out when she noticed her as Doggo went to stand by her side.

"Hey, kiddo!" she said as Doggo set her down. "Don't worry, you're going to be just fine. Someone special is here to see you." she motioned behind her.

"fate!" Sans stood off to the side, nearly in tears.

Immediately, she rushed to her father's open arms and he hugged her tight.

"i'm sorry, fate! I'm so sorry!" tears slid down Sans' cheekbones as relief washed over him while Fate buried her face into the softness of the fur on his jacket.

"Sans!" Undyne called out. "Meet me at the station!"

He looked over to her, finding she was already settled into the driver's seat of her car with Doggo accompanying the kidnapper in the back seat.

"you got it!"

* * *

"yup, i got her, paps." Sans said pulling his cell away from his skull, anticipating a rather loud response.

 _"TRULY?!"_ Papyrus shouted on his receiver, not that he didn't believe him.

Just to further prove his point, Sans put the phone on Fate's ear, who sat on his lap as he sat at one the chairs at the police station.

"Uncle Papy!" she exclaimed and Sans quickly pulled the phone away from her ear.

 _"NIECE!"_ Papyrus shouted louder than the last time. _"OH, I'M SO HAPPY YOU'RE SAFE AND SOUND! TORIEL, FRISK AND I HAD BEEN WORRIED SICK! YOU'RE NOT HURT, ARE YOU?! OH, TELL ME IT ISN'T SO!"_

"I'm OK, Uncle Papy! I wasn't hurt at all!"

 _"THANK THE STARS!"_

Suddenly, there was a harsh shuffling noise, like as if Papyrus was running with the phone.

 _"MS. TORIEL, FRISK! SANS HAS FATE! THEY ARE CURRENTLY AT THE POLICE STATION!"_ Sans and Fate heard him exclaim.

 _"Really?!" "Oh, my_ Fate _!"_ they hear Frisk and Toriel exclaim.

They each had their turn talking to Fate and asking of her condition. At one point, it sounded as if Toriel was trying to hold some tears back. After confirming Fate wasn't injured in the slightest, Papyrus asked Sans what he was doing at the police station. He put his cell on speaker so everyone can hear Sans.

"undyne asked me to come by after she arrested the kidnapper. i had to fill out a witness report. be home as soon as possible. ok, see everyone soon." Sans hung up.

"Daddy?"

"what's up, princess?" Sans looked at her lovingly.

"I'm hungry."

Sans chuckled. "how about we...go to grillby's?"

"Yay! I want Grillby's!"

Sans chuckled again. Good, it gives him an opportunity to surprise him with good news.

* * *

"Wonderful! It's a relief to see her with you." Grillby had closed shop a bit earlier than usual and now sat at a table with Sans, Fate sitting on his lap and eating some fries, a wrapped Grillby burg to the side.

"you have no idea." Sans replied with a genuine smile on his skull while he watched his daughter eat. "I gotta tell ya something.

Grillby got the message, excusing himself as he interrupted Fate while standing up to follow Sans. Fate happily continued eating while they stepped away.

"it was a human male who kidnapped her."

Grillby wasn't surprised. Out of anyone who could have kidnapped that sweet child, it would be a human.

"and y'know what the bastard had the gall to spit out? 'monsters don't have the right to raise a human child'."

Grillby sparked a tad hotter. How dare he?!

"and what gave him the right to decide that?" Sans continued.

"It's sad, really." Grillby started. "After four years, you would think folks would settle down more than they have."

"if it wasn't for the kid and Fate, I would have given up on humans." Sans sadly shook his head.

"What did he plan to do with Fate?"

"raise her himself or maybe give her up for adoption, we don't know for sure. Not that it would have worked."

Grillby shook his head. If all humans would just come to terms with monsters on the surface, the city would be a much calmer place.

"Whatever the case, the most important thing is that Fate is back with us."

"thank the stars." Sans smiled. "well, we'd better get home. i'm sure paps, tori and the kid want to see her."

"Of course." Grillby replied, following Sans to his previous table.

As Grillby neared, Fate smiled up at him.

"Thank you for the fries, Uncle Grill!"

"It is my pleasure, little one." Grillby answered and gave an airy chuckle when she hugged him, crackling happily.

"ready to go?" Sans asked when he picked her up.

"Ready, Daddy!"

"hold on to that burg tight." Fate brought it to her chest. "up, up..."

"And away!" Fate exclaimed, waving at Grillby before they disappeared.

Sans appeared a few feet from the front door, Fate giggling from her disorientation once again. Sans walked up and opened his home's door.

"we're home!"

He wasn't completely done with his sentence when Toriel and Papyrus came into view.

"Fate!" "SANS!" they exclaimed simultaneously.

Toriel got to Fate first, scooping her from Sans' arms. She hugged her as tightly as her small body can handle, kissing her face all over. Just seeing her little girl brought her to tears. Fate giggled at the assault of love, begging her to stop.

"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!" Papyrus scolded Sans with his gloved hands on his hips. "WE HAVE BEEN WAITING 31 MINUTES FOR YOU AND NIECE FATE TO COME HOME! WE WERE GETTING WORRIED ALL OVER AGAIN!"

"sorry, paps, fate was hungry, so i decided to treat her to grillby's."

"UGH!" Papyrus would have scrunched his nose if he had one.

"besides, he was worried sick too, y'know."

"I DON'T KNOW HOW YOU TWO COULD STAND EATING THAT GREASY FOOD! YOU COULD HAVE COME STRAIGHT HOME AND GOTTEN A MUCH HEALTHIER DINNER!" he turned his head. "BUT THE MERCIFUL AND GRACIOUS PAPYRUS WILL FORGIVE YOU THIS TIME, FOR YOU HAVE BROUGHT FATE HOME, SAFE AND SOUND!"

"thanks, bro. you're the best."

"I KNOW I AM!"

Sans spotted Frisk to Toriel's unoccupied side, waiting for his turn to hug Fate. He was looking up at her with a relieved smile, then spotted Sans looking him and beamed at him. Sans' eye lights grew in happiness. After everyone had their turn hugging Fate and had a slice of Toriel's famous butterscotch and cinnamon pie, everyone finally settled down and sat down to watch TV together.

After that, Toriel and Sans left Frisk and Papyrus to play with Fate so they can talk about school business in the kitchen.

"With Frisk's help, I talked to the students who were bullying Fate."

"and what happened?"

"Well, two of them came out and said sorry, but the last was a bit reluctant to say so. Still, I could see he was feeling bad."

Sans hummed and nodded, taking in everything she was saying.

"Since it was their first offense, they got off with a warning. We would have had them say sorry to her personally, but..."

"that's a good sign though."

"What kind of mother would I be if I let other kids bully my daughter?"

Sans picked up a plate with leftover pie crumbs that someone neglected to put in the sink.

"a _crumby_ one." he replied lifting the plate to further prove his point, then placed it into the sink.

"Oh, Sans!" Toriel laughed, covering her snout with her paws.

"just tryin' a _butter_ you up." Sans' perma-smile lifter further, making snort as she laughed harder. "you must have had a rough school day."

"Yes," she started as she wiped laughter tears from her eyes. "But everything is worthwhile, especially when I got to hold my Fate again."

"thanks for all your hard work, tori."

"Thank _you_ , Sans. For bringing her home."

Sans let his perma-smile turn genuine.

"alright, kiddo." Sans grabbed the playing trio's attention when he walked into the living room. "bath time."

"Ok!" Fate took her time getting to her father who already had her towel ready.

"what is it today?"

"Bubble bath!"

"sounds good. washing your hair today?"

"Yes."

 _stars! she's going to be the **death** of me!_

"be careful when you open the bubble soap bottle."

"Okay."

"and careful not to let shampoo into your eyes."

"Okay."

"don't dunk your head under the water."

"Okay."

"also—"

"Daddy~"

"i know, i know. you're a big girl now." Sans chuckled and kissed her forehead. "call if anything."

"I know, daddy!" she said and closed the door behind her.

They grow up too fast.

After her bath, Fate cuddled up to Papyrus as they watched Mettaton until it was his turn for the shower.

"NIECE, WHO WILL YOU BE SLEEPING WITH TONIGHT?"

"I wanna sleep with daddy." she replied and tried to rub the growing drowsiness out of one of her eyes.

"BUT, WHY NOT ME?!" he asked, disappointed.

"I'll sleep with you tomorrow."

"REALLY?!" Papyrus' eye sockets sparkled.

"Promise."

"I CAN'T WAIT FOR TOMORROW!"

"bed time for you, princess." Sans deemed since he noticed she was sleepy.

"GOOD NIGHT, NIECE."

"Good night, Uncle Papy."

He hugged her once more before speeding away to the bathroom.

"Good night, Fate." Frisk emerged from the kitchen, fetching a glass of water before bed.

"Night, Frisky."

Sans led Fate up the stairs, where Toriel surprised her by suddenly picking her up and nuzzling her snout against her cheek.

"Hehe, good night, Mama." she giggled.

"Sweet dreams, my child. Is she sleeping with you tonight?" Toriel set her down.

"yup. she can't sleep in her room with that broken window." Sans scooped her and she snuggled into him. "i was thinking she shouldn't at least until her window's replaced."

"I agree."

Sans nodded. "well, g'night, tor."

"Good night, dear."

Sans set Fate into his bed first before climbing in and settling in himself. Fate was already half asleep as he gently pulled her against his chest, listening to her rhythmic breathing.

"g'night, princess. i love you."

After a moment, he heard a soft,

"Love you, Daddy."

* * *

Thank you all for reading! If there's at least one person that likes my writing, then I'll keep writing!

If you have any suggestions for any future works, I would love to hear them! I'll write them down so I won't forget and I guess I'll check them off in the chapters I write them in.

Suggestions so far:  
-Cherry


	3. UF Sans - My Child part 1

Because this is the Underfell AU and would have chapters of it's own, I thought it would be easier to make this a whole new story, instead of adding it to Undertale AU story. However, I cannot pot a new story because the button "Select Category" does not work. So for the time being, you, my wonderful readers will have to rely on the Chapter Navigation drop-down to get to the AU and chapter that you want to get to. I will be labeling each chapter with the AU and chapter number to make it easier for you until this is fixed.

Please enjoy!

* * *

She sat outside in the snowy woods sobbing loudly, her small body freezing in the snow, the wind that occasionally rolled by helping her none. It was only a matter of time before she froze to death, having nothing but a baggy shirt and shorts on, not even shoes. She had tried to find shelter, but all she found were naked trees that did nothing for any form of help.

So she did what any toddler would do. She gave up and cried, mostly from the pain of the cold. She hoped that someone would hear her and rescue her from her suffering, before it was too late.

* * *

Sans grumbled under his breath as he trudged down the snowy path. Papyrus had chewed him out when he found him taking a little snooze in his sentry outpost, telling him how worthless he was, that he couldn't even keep watch properly. Before it was time for work earlier, the Boss practically threw him out of the house an hour too early, telling him to get to work and for some reason no matter what he did, Sans could not get on his brother's good side today.

So Papyrus ordered him to get off his lazy ass and patrol. That will keep him awake and it did. All Sans could do about it was grumble and do what his brother told him to do.

 _What was that noise? Crying?_ Who could be crying all the way out here? Sans made his way through the trees, following the noise until he stood in front of a pale, tiny human. He stared, dumbfounded.

"how the hell did you get here?!" he picked up the toddler and she immediately clung to him, looking for some kind of warmth. "hey, hey! w-what do ya think yer doin'?!"

 _ah, hell..._

She was so small! A baby, he concluded. _A human baby!_ The Boss would definitely praise him for this! But...

"fuckin' hell, yer freezin'. how long were ya out here for?" Finally, her crying was getting to him and he cringed as she seemed to get louder. "alright, already, i get it! i'm only doin' this to shut yer ass up, ya hear me?!"

Quickly, he unzipped his fluffy sweater enough so he can stick her in, then zipped it up the rest of the way. He put an arm under her to support her and put a hand on her back to push her closer to his body and he shivered. Her tiny body felt like an over-sized ice cube. How long was she truly out here for? He felt bad for her. She was out here for God knows how long only to warm up enough to get handed over to Papyrus. Then she'll be shipped off to the King. Maybe...he can convince his brother to give her a break. He let that other kid with that coward of a flower through. Maybe he'll let this one go too. It's just a baby. It's not like he's going to get very far holding her anyway.

Finally, he noticed that she quieted down significantly.

"hey." he called. "yer not dead, are ya?"

He didn't go through the trouble of holding her freezing cold body just to have her die in his sweater. No way. When he didn't get any sort of answer, he jostled her a bit.

"i'm talkin' to ya!" that earned him a whine that sounded like she was about to start crying again, but stopped short. "good."

Now then, the only way he can get passed here without running into Papyrus would be to teleport. He didn't want to, but that might be the only—

"SANS!"

Shit! There's no way he's going to get away with not answering him! OK, this kid's small enough, he might be able to pull it off. Before heading toward him, Sans stuck his hands in the pockets of his sweater and supported her that way instead, it'll look more natural.

"alright, kid, listen up. i need ya to stay still and don't make a peep. if the boss finds ya, you'll really be iced." he patted her back and he felt her snuggle into him, before stilling once more.

Taking that as her answer and double checking that she's fully hidden, he continued toward his brother right as he heard him calling for a second time. He hurried his steps, knowing that the third call isn't going to be pleasant.

"yeah, boss?" Sans called out to him as soon as his brother came into view.

"GIVE ME YOUR REPORT." Papyrus commanded with his usual scowl. "SINCE YOU TOOK _THIS_ LONG, I EXPECT YOU FOUND _SOMETHING_."

Red magical sweat started to bead on Sans' forehead as his permanent smile disappeared. Papyrus isn't going to believe him if he lies to him, will he? There are only two monsters that can see through him and Papyrus is one of them.

Pun intended.

Dammit, he felt so bad for the kid, but he knows he's not going to get away with this. Not unscathed anyway.

"yeah, i found somethin'..." Sans all but muttered, but he hesitated.

"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?" In Sans' hesitation, Papyrus grew impatient.

Slowly, he unzipped his sweater until a tiny head was visible. Chancing a regretful glance at Papyrus' face, he saw a smirk cross his features.

"ASGORE'S BEARD, IS THAT A HUMAN?" Sans slowly nodded. "WONDERFUL! YOU MAY NOT BE WORTHLESS AFTER ALL!"

The praise felt great, but he felt like it wasn't worth it.

"HAND IT OVER. I MUST DELIVER IT QUICKLY BEFORE UNDYNE CATCHES WIND. I WILL BECOME CAPTAIN OF THE ROYAL GUARD YET!"

"actually, boss, i was thinkin' that maybe we can let this one live? i-i mean, the kid's so small—"

"STOP BEING RIDICULOUS, SANS."

Papyrus held his hand out in a hand-it-over gesture, but again his brother hesitated.

"c-c'mon, this kid's just a baby." Sans tried to reason with him one last time. "can't even try to defend itself, y'know...?"

"SO WHAT? THIS WORLD IS KILL OR BE KILLED. IT'S WEAKLINGS LIKE IT THAT ARE RID OF FIRST."

"but, boss—"

"ENOUGH! GIVE IT HERE BEFORE I TAKE IT FROM YOU!"

With that threat, Sans inched back, putting a hand on the baby's back, the other still supporting her up. This baby didn't even get a real chance to live. It reminded Sans of their younger days, back when he had to do everything in his power to keep him and his younger brother alive. So when Papyrus was finally able to take care of himself, it was a weight off his shoulders, but in a good way.

He doesn't know why he thought that reasoning with this guy could maybe change his mind. He doesn't think or care about anyone but himself.

"I AM SORELY DISAPPOINTED IN YOU." Papyrus growled. "I TAKE BACK WHAT I SAID, YOU ARE _NOTHING_ BUT USELESS!"

Sans put more distance between him and his brother when Papyrus took a step forward, also zipping his sweater back up to hide the baby from view. His words were starting to sting.

"HONESTLY. YOU ARE A DISGRACE TO SENTRIES, BUT YOU ALREADY KNEW THAT." Papyrus glowered. "I AM JUST ABOUT ASHAMED TO CALL YOU MY BROTHER."

 _he did not just...!_

"y'know what?!" Sans snapped. "i don't know _what_ i was thinkin' tryin' to talk to you! you ain't _capable_ of any mercy! kill or be killed my ass, we can fuckin' make choices!" Sans turned his back on his brother. "an' i ain't about to let this baby go through what we had to!"

With those last words, Sans promptly disappeared. He wasn't interested in what Papyrus had to say. He'll raise the kid himself if he has to! It couldn't be as hard as raising Papyrus, right?

Sans teleported right above the living room couch and let himself fall on top of it, holding the small bundle of warmth close to him so she wouldn't get hurt. She did exactly as he told her, not one peep, not one wiggle. He could already tell she's a well behaved child. He quickly got up from the couch and went straight upstairs to his room, so he can finally put her down. Once in his room, he locked the door behind him, unzipped his sweater and carefully placed her on his bed. He noticed her eyes were closed. Well, of course she went to sleep, her body warmed up considerably, although he doesn't know how she can sleep through all that yelling...

Something's not right.

He barely lifted his hands from setting her down when he noticed her breathing was labored.

 _stars, she's not_...He gently placed the back of his skeletal hand on her forehead to check her temperature, hoping it wasn't what he thought it was.

Fuck. Sans didn't think this day could get any worse, but he was wrong.

Sans forced himself to calm down. It's just a fever and he's pretty sure he's got medicine. He made sure the baby was safely settled in his bed, then hurried for the bathroom and checked in the storage behind the mirror. Bingo! There they are. Pills for...fevers...

 _shit._

Sans slid a hand down his face. OK, first things first, he's got to get that fever down somehow, so he teleported to get two clean face cloths, then reappeared in the kitchen and ran the cold water. He also got a bowl, filled it with cold water and even added ice for extra measure. He couldn't teleport back with his supplies, knowing he might spill it, so instead he carefully walked up the stairs, hurrying to his room the best he could without spilling the water.

Sans found the baby still asleep, her breathing a bit quick, like as if she had to catch her breath. He felt pity for her. Jerk or not, his brother is right. It is kill or be killed, there's no way she could survive by herself. If anyone else found her, she would either be dead or be brought before the king...and die. Neither option is pleasant.

Sans let one face cloth rest in the ice water, before wringing it out, folding it to fit her forehead and placed it on her.

She reminded him too much of Papyrus when he got sick as a little kid.

 **MERCY**

"don't you worry." Sans whispered to her as he wiped her neck with the dry face cloth. "i'll take care of ya."

* * *

Sans was jolted awake to the sound of crying. When did he fall asleep? He didn't remember.

Immediately, he wrung out the cold face cloth he found resting in the ice water, wiped her face with it—which made her cry more—then promptly picked her up. He supported her butt with one hand and the other he rested gently on the back of her head, which was resting on his shoulder.

Sans remembered dealing with this with Papyrus when he was her age. He learned the hard way that bouncing a baby with a fever just makes the whole situation worse.

So he took what he learned and began swaying his body, occasionally moving around the room. Eventually, she quieted down, sniffling every so often. Thinking what he should do next, he realized she was going to need something soft to eat. Does she even have teeth? Sans checked and discovered she has a couple...and he also discovered that she didn't appreciate the sudden check-up and started to cry again. Now he has to start all over again! He's going to need help and there's only one monster he can rely on right now. When she settled down again, he carefully put her back into his sweater just like he had the first time he found her, keeping a hand in his pocket and gave her the same rules as before.

"'s ok." he cooed, when she started to fuss. "we're gonna meet an old friend, but i'm gonna need ya to stay quiet."

It seems like she understood again. She shuffled around a bit to get comfortable, then he felt her snuggle against him before stilling.

 _smart kid._

He took no time and teleported in front of Grillby's. Walking in, he made a bee-line straight to Grillby himself, placing a hand on the bar.

"i need ta talk to ya once you've closed shop."

It's a good thing it's close to closing time. Sans' seemed uncharacteristically serious and Grillby took immediate notice.

"...You know where to find me."

With a nod, Sans disappeared as quickly and as quietly as he arrived.

 _'Strange.'_ Grillby thought. Sans is not usually that short with words.

Again, Sans reappeared in front of the town's only store. All the teleporting he's doing is getting him tired, but he's getting anxious. He could feel the heat coming off the baby's little body. She felt like a tiny furnace and he's pretty sure she's getting worse, but he couldn't leave her alone in his room like that, she's a baby. Something could have happened to her or worse yet, the Boss could have gotten home. He also can't have her out in the open. 1. It's cold, she'll get worse and 2. Monsters are aggressive toward humans, baby or not.

"hang in there, kiddo. 'm almost done."

As he entered the store, he gave her a quick, one-stroke back rub while no one was looking. Even then she didn't utter a single peep which he was thankful for, because as soon as he finished with that one smooth motion, the rabbit woman who ran the store turned to him, giving him a look between a blank expression and a slight happy one.

"Yes?"

"got any liquid medicine fer colds? preferably one that brings down fevers... And don't taste like shit."

The rabbit nodded, wordlessly, then turned to fetch the desired item.

"Is Papyrus sick again?" she chanced conversation. Sans wasn't in the mood for any conversation, but he also didn't want to scare the hidden bundle, who was currently huddled against him. "It's been a while."

It's true. It's been so long since Papyrus was sick. Sans remembers he got sick every so often when he was young, but as he grew older, he became less and less susceptible to illnesses to the point that he rarely ever gets sick anymore and Sans himself doesn't get sick. Because of that, they don't have much need for medicine.

"somethin' like that."

Once the shop keeper handed over the medicine, he dropped the G required and disappeared once again only to land comfortably on his bed, holding the huddled bundle closer against him for maximum smooth landing. Quickly, he got to getting her out of his sweater and onto the bed without tousling her too much, then let her borrow his sweater for warmth in favor of unraveling his ball of a blankets. His sweater is warmer anyway.

OK, now to give her medicine. Then he'll let her rest and visit Grillby—Sans interrupted his own thoughts to wonder when the last time she ate was. He shook his head thinking he should worry about that after the medicine. Once again he teleported to the kitchen, hoping Papyrus hasn't gotten home yet. Thankfully, he hasn't and Sans hurried to find that medicine syringe he used years ago for when Papyrus was too ill to drink medicine properly.

Perfect. Exactly where he left it. Quickly, he rinsed it out and teleported back, just in time too, she started fussing, it wouldn't have taken much longer for her to start crying.

"Shh..." Sans cooed as he quickly opened the medicine bottle and filled up the the medicine syringe. He noticed the bottle said something about sleep. That lady gave him the right kind. "Got ya somethin' that'll make ya feel better. Open up."

He poked her mouth with the plastic syringe and she whined.

"c'mon, open yer mouth." Really? Now? "don't start gettin' difficult on me..."

Fuck. If she doesn't want to take it, he's going to have to force her and that won't sit well with either of the two.

"don't make me do this. i know ya don't wanna be bothered. if ya take this, i won't bother ya no more."

Again, she whined as an answer, but he poked her mouth again and this time she opened it.

"good—" He stopped himself short in wonder. This baby has a lot of hair, so a girl, right? He checked to make extra sure and...huh. No diaper. Definitely a girl though. "...girl. Probably potty trained..." he muttered as he rubbed her tummy to help her relax.

It worked with Papyrus, hopefully it'll work with her...and she fell asleep, this is working out a lot better than he expected. She might be easier to take care of than he first thought. He put his pillow at her side, in case she rolls over and falls off the bed. Now for the last step.

"...What is it, Sans?" Grillby said when he heard the sound of air being forced into a space it didn't belong, a faint pop.

"i need to talk to ya about a _tiny_ problem 'm havin'."

"I'm listening."

"i found a human." Sans said in a hushed voice, as if the walls had ears.

"Good."

"no! not good! it's a human baby!" He immediately forgot about being quiet. "she was already half dead by the time I found her, but i fuckin' felt bad for her." he banged his fist on the bar top, using his other hand to rest his forehead on.

"Sans, you didn't..."

"she's in my room, dead asleep. she caught a cold, so i gave her medicine, but i'm gonna need baby food without anyone else findin' out about her."

"You're an idiot."

"look, will ya help me or not?" he ignored Grillby's retort.

Grillby sighed deeply, pinching the bridge of his supposed nose while he thought about it. Sans stared at him with an expression that somewhat resembled pleading.

"...Fine." Grillby muttered after a long pause. "For every food I make, I'm adding to your tab."

"fan-fuckin'-tastic." Sans rolled his eye lights to further exaggerate his sarcasm. "i need some now for when she wakes up."

Without a word, Grillby retreated to his kitchen and as he stepped through the doorway, he heard another faint pop behind him. He knows Sans will be back by the time he's finished.

Sans doesn't know how much more teleporting he can do, but he doesn't want to run into Papyrus until the baby is fed, at the very least. Plus, if he went running around, someone would start asking questions, even if he started now. He appeared in his room to find her still sleeping and now up against his pillow. Her breathing was still a little labored, but now he's confident she'll be fine.

By how quiet the house was, Papyrus still isn't home. Now that Sans had cooled down and thought about it, he started feeling dread creep up his spine. The way he blew up on him and just disappeared is _going_ to come back and haunt him, he just knows it. If he's lucky, Papyrus is blowing off steam somewhere. Maybe he won't be punished too badly...

He recalled Papyrus saying something about how he learned just how dangerous humans can be from Undyne. Good, but what can this little human do?! The other brat might be capable of doing something, sure, but this baby? She couldn't hurt a Whimsum even if she tried.

Speaking of the kid, that one had DETERMINATION. What does this one have?

Very carefully, Sans hovered his hand over the baby's chest and slowly pulled out her SOUL. The last thing he wants is to wake her up. It's green.

That's KINDNESS.

This poor kid was most definitely going to be eaten alive with a trait like that! Seriously, _how did she get down here?!_

The more Sans stared at it, the more something wasn't quite right. That's not really green is it? Upon closer inspection, it has kind of a blue to it...PATIENCE.

PATIENCE and KINDNESS...

She's UNDERSTANDING!

Well, that makes more sense. It's no wonder she's well behaved with a trait like that. Sans let go of her SOUL and watched it slip back into her chest. Fate...Well, the name certainly matches her. He felt like he was forgetting something as he watched her stir—

 _the fuckin' food!_

Sans once again reappeared at the bar, holding onto said bar for support. After one more shortcut, he's done. He's at his limit. He knows this time is his actual his limit, but he's not chancing running into Papyrus. Plus, he won't be able to walk straight on his way home anyway.

"About time you got back." he heard Grillby's smooth voice as the fire elemental disappeared into the kitchen once again.

"gotta make this quick." Sans called after him.

In no time at all, Grillby reappeared holding a medium sized container with a top.

"This is enough for three baby meals. Now go home, feed the human. I don't want you passing out on my bar."

"aw, don't sweet talk me like that. you'll get my hopes up." Sans gave him a shit-eating smirk and disappeared before Grillby can roll his eyes.

Fate was already fussing when he got back. Her hunger must have woken her up. God dammit, he forgot to get—Oh. Grillby put a small spoon in the container. He seriously has to thank him later.

"alright, alright. i know yer hungry."

As soon as he opened the container, Fate stopped fussing, but started to whine when Sans was taking too long.

"hold yer horses, it's hot. ya _wanna_ burn yer tongue off?"

Sans helped sit her up enough to eat comfortably, then began to feed her, blowing(?) on the spoonfuls between every bite. Sometime during feeding, he heard to the door slam downstairs, startling him enough that he almost dropped the spoon when he jumped.

Shit. Well, at least the baby's fed and safe in his room. By this time, Fate started falling asleep in her position, so Sans decided feeding time was over and lay her down so she can sleep comfortably.

 _Thank the stars, 'm fuckin' exhausted..._

He laid down next to Fate, putting her on the inside side of the bed. He faced her, laying on his side and noticed some sweat on her forehead. Good. Her fever's broken. He pulled his sweater up to cover her more and smiled. If it weren't for him, this poor child would be dead.

* * *

"SANS!" he woke up with a start, hearing Papyrus' voice from just outside his room. "GET UP, YOU WORTHLESS WASTE OF SPACE!"

He never gets tired of insulting him...

From right in front of him, he heard tiny whimpers. It seems he wasn't the only one startled awake. Sans knows that if he doesn't hurry, his brother will shout again, but if he does hurry away, he won't get the chance to stop the baby from crying. His only choice right now is to take the babe with him, so he scooped her up gently, placing a hand on her head to gently ease her head on his shoulder. He swayed a bit to calm her down as he walked to the door and opened it just in time to see Papyrus' jaw already open. He was literally about to shout again. Papyrus shut his mouth quickly, earning an audible click, then he took a deep breath.

"I WISH TO TALK ABOUT..." he glared at the small bundle resting her head on his brother's shoulder. _"THAT."_

Papyrus wanted to talk? THE Terrible Papyrus wants to talk?

"funny." Sans drawled, leaning on his bedroom door frame and holding the baby up with with one arm. "that's what _i_ wanted to do, but you weren't havin' any of _that_."

"DON'T GIVE ME LIP, LEST I CHANGE MY MIND." Papyrus narrowed his eye sockets at him.

Sans rose his free hand, agreeing to have this talk.

"WHAT IS IT THAT YOU INTEND TO DO WITH THAT?"

"i intend to raise _her_."

"RAISE?" Papyrus scoffed. "HOW CAN _YOU_ RAISE ANYTHING?"

"i donno." Sans glared at him. "seems _you_ came out peachy."

Papyrus didn't have a comeback for that. Instead, he glared at Sans, who was glaring right back.

"FINE!" Papyrus finally concluded after a moment of silence as he threw his hands in the air. Sans had to start swaying for moment after he felt the babe jump from the sudden shout. "YOU MAY DO WHAT YOU WANT, BUT I DO NOT WANT ANYTHING TO DO WITH... _THAT_." he glared one last time at the small bundle before turning, going into his room in his naturally fast pace and slammed the door behind him.

Sans sighed. This is not a good start, but at least Papyrus gave his approval on Fate staying with them. For now, she must be hungry again, after that, he'll take her to the bathroom, where she can do her business and then he'll give her a bath.

* * *

After a week, Fate was well enough to walk. She still had a small case of the sniffles, but other than that, she happily walked around the house like she owned the place.

Sans was sitting on the living room couch, slightly slouched, and watched Mettaton on TV. It seems the other brat with the flower is starring in the robot's latest bloodbath quiz show. That kid's going to die.

While watching TV, he checked on Fate every once in while. If she wandered away from his peripherals, he would use his magic to bring her closer to him and she had a blast every time he did. She had wandered away just moments before and he brought her back one last time, the baby giggling as he had her floating toward him.

"yer havin' way too much fun." he stated with a smirk and made her land right into his arms, transferring her to a spot beside him, but kept his arm around her. "that's enough wanderin' around. how about watchin' mettaton with me." It wasn't a question.

They watched the kid answer a question correctly and Dr. Alphys' face turned scarlet, hiding her face in her claws. Sans knew he just missed a little something while he talked to Fate, but this was still funny.

"Mm." Fate grunted as she tried to get Sans' attention, but he didn't want to miss what was happening next.

"hold on." Sans said as he snickered at Alphys' misfortune.

"Mmaah!" Fate bounced in place, holding a handful of his hoodie's fur and tugged.

"kid, just hold on fer a sec."

Oh shit, the brat actually survived the quiz show. Whatever Mettaton has in store for them next, it's not going to be pretty. They're probably going to die.

Fate whined. Sans knew that whine very well. He heard it from Papyrus when he was young. The kind of whine that said, 'you're out of time and if you don't pay attention to me _right this second_ I'm _going_ to start crying.' So he turned his head to look at her, trying to hide his irritation, but he was sure he was failing.

"what'dya want?"

She climbed into his lap for better access to his teeth, using a tiny hand to touch them, feeling the smooth of them despite being pointy. She lingered over the gold fang as she cooed, like as if giving it special attention. Sans kept his hands on her sides, to make sure she doesn't fall.

"really?" he said as a statement. "this was the so important thing you interrupted my show for?"

"Dah."

"yer a little shit." he said with a smirk and a ghost of a laugh in his voice.

"...sit?"

"hey, 'ey,' ey! don't you repeat that! yer _that_ age, huh? fuck, now i gotta watch what I say."

"Fug."

"what did i _just_ finish tellin' ya? huh?!" he shook her sides gently and she immediately started giggling. He gave a short chuckle along with her. "ya can't repeat everythin' ya hear."

Suddenly, she looked over him and stared as he heard a set of footsteps behind him heading towards the kitchen.

"WHAT ARE YOU STARING AT, HUMAN?" Papyrus glared.

"thought you wanted nothin' to do with her, boss?" Sans piped up.

"DO YOU WANT TO DIE?"

"i-i was just sayin'..."

"SHUT UP." Papyrus disappeared into the kitchen.

"tch." Sans scoffed under his breath. "don't pay attention to 'im. he's just an asshole."

"Ah?" she pointed at the kitchen.

"yeah." Sans smirked mischievously. "that's asshole."

"Ashole?"

"yeah, that's right." Sans chuckled.

This is going to be good.

About a moment later, Papyrus emerged from the kitchen and immediately, just as Sans suspected, Fate greeted him as if she hadn't seen him all day just because she learned his 'name'.

"Ashole!"

Sans snickered, trying to hold in his laughter as Papyrus stopped in his tracks.

" _WHAT_ DID YOU JUST CALL ME, HUMAN?" Papyrus glowered, but that didn't seem to have an effect on Fate.

"Ashole!" the baby answered him, then proceeded to giggle while reaching out to him.

Fate's answer broke Sans' damn and he couldn't hold in his laughter any longer. Papyrus stared at the back of his brother's head in disapproval.

"REALLY, SANS?" he said that as a statement, making Sans roar harder. "UNBELIEVABLE, HOW CHILDISH YOU ARE ACTING." With one last half glare at the smiling child, Papyrus continued on his way. "I'M GOING TO MY ROOM. DO NOT BOTHER ME."

"ah!" Sans took in a gulp of air he supposedly needed from laughing so hard. "that was fuckin' priceless!"

"Ashole."

A month now, that the human toddler shared the skelebros' home and for a month now, the human toddler tried to befriend the Great and Terrible Papyrus.

Said skeleton currently sat on the couch, trying his hardest to ignore the toddler by watching some TV. Sans had left to Grillby's, doing something that Papyrus doesn't care to know about. It seems Sans had caught on that Papyrus isn't really going to harm Fate.

Despite being threatened countless times, Fate isn't intimidated by Papyrus. No matter how loud he got, how hard he glared, how much he growled and glowered at her, the most frightened he got from her was when he accidentally startled her and she started crying. Although the satisfaction he got from making her cry felt amazing, it was an accident. Does that really count?

And to make matters worse, Sans taught her to call him 'asshole'! Someone's going to have to fix this, and he had a sneaking suspicion that he's going to be the one.

"Ashole!" Fate called, trying to get Papyrus' attention who was currently ignoring her.

There's only so many 'ashole's' he can take and he was at his limit!

"MY NAME IS _NOT_ ASSHOLE!" he finally exploded at her.

"No Ashole?"

Fate has been picking up some words on her own by listening to the two skeletons.

"NO! I AM THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE PAPYRUS! YOU HAD BEST REMEMBER IT!"

"Pa..."

Papyrus sighed in exasperation. He really has to teach her?

"LISTEN WELL, FOR I AM ONLY GOING TO DO THIS ONCE." Fate stared at him, her attention undivided. "SAY TERRIBLE." he spoke slowly as not to lose her on the first word.

"Teble..."

"PAPYRUS."

"Parus?"

"I SAID, PAPYRUS, YOU FOOL!"

"Parus!"

"BAH! YOU HAVE NOT EVEN MASTERED SPEECH. I DON'T KNOW WHY I AM EVEN WASTING MY TIME ON YOU. BEGONE!" he waved his hand in a go-away motion. "YOU ARE DISTRACTING ME FROM THE SHOW."

"Mm!" Fate shook her head. "Parus!"

When he ignored her again, she tried calling him again. This time, the scowl on his face deepened and he growled at her persistence.

"WHAT IS IT NOW?!"

Fate reached up to him. "Up?"

"ABSOLUTELY NOT. I AM NOT HOLDING A VILE CREATURE SUCH AS YOURSELF!"

At first, she stared at him with her arms still reaching out to him, but he went back to ignoring her and she realized he wasn't going to hold her, she whined, slowly lowering her arms. When Papyrus heard the pained whine, he glanced in her direction and immediately regretted it. Standing at his feet was a teary-eyed baby, her face contouring more as she readied herself to cry.

"DO NOT EVEN DARE." Papyrus threatened, but she instead worsened. "I SWEAR I WILL THROW YOU TO THE SNOW!"

By now, she was softly crying and though he loved making her miserable, right now he only wanted to relax and she was making that impossible.

He could just leave. He could go to his room, but he knew if he did, Sans wouldn't listen to him if he wanted him for anything later on. The more time he spent thinking about how to make her stop without touching her, the more her crying worsened, so finally he's had it and scooped her up in an uncomfortable fashion, holding her away from his body. She looked at him with watery eyes, her lip still quivering. He stared back with a deep scowl and narrowed eyes, then she smiled at him, wiggling and cooing happily. Papyrus' big hands easily held her securely.

"YOU CONNIVING THING. YOU PLANNED THIS, DID YOU?!"

"Parus!" was the one worded response she gave, giggling at him.

"YOU HAVE FOOLED SANS—NOT THAT _THAT_ IS WORTHY OF ANY KIND OF PRAISE—BUT YOU WILL NOT FOOL ME! I KNOW OF YOUR TRICKS!"

Fate stared at his face before a look recollection flash in her eyes as she remembered what Sans always calls Papyrus when addressing him.

"Bos."

Papyrus stopped momentarily, a small look of surprise crossing his features for a second before a deep crimson dusted his cheek bones.

"I-I SEE YOU ARE NOT AS MUCH OF A FOOL AS I FIRST THOUGHT..."

"Bos!" Fate giggles again, trying to reach for him.

For the first time since Papyrus has known this child, he saw the charm she carries and for the first time he felt the tiniest want to hug her. He changed the way he was carrying her, instead cradling her in his enormous palms. In one, Fate's head and upper body lay and in the other lay her lower body.

"VERY WELL, _PET_. YOU HAVE PROVEN THAT YOU INDEED KNOW YOUR PLACE."

Just then, Sans teleported in the living room, right by the door, holding another container of Grillby's homemade baby food.

"hey, boss, i'm—"

Sans stopped himself mid-sentence, as he witnessed Papyrus smiling at the small bundle he gently held in his palms. For once in years, Sans was witnessing not a smirk, but a genuine smile on his brother's face as Fate reached up towards him while giggling happily.

Not wanting to ruin the moment, Sans' perma-smile relaxed and he entered the kitchen quietly, deciding to wait for their bonding to reach a conclusion so he can feed Fate.

"YOU ARE CUTE, I ADMIT THAT MUCH. NOW, AWAY WITH YOU." he set her down and urged her away with a small push on her butt.

So she did her little waddle of a walk toward the kitchen where she could have sworn she saw Sans enter a moment ago.

"hey there, kiddo." Sans noticed her without so much as looking, as soon as she entered the kitchen. He's always had a watchful eye light for her ever since she started walking around. Sans then picked her up, the same relaxed smile on his skull. "i don't know how ya did it, but you befriended th' boss, hm?" he hugged her and she giggled.

"Dada~"

"huh?!" Sans startled, his eye lights shrinking to pinpricks and he pulled away enough to look at her face. "What'dya call me?"

"Dada!"

"h-hold on...i'm not—i can't—"

Fate put her tiny hands on either sides of Sans' skull and nuzzled her face against his cheekbone in affection.

"heh. ya made up yer mind, huh?" his eye lights grew in glee. "don't worry, kid, if ya want me as yer pops, i'ma be dad-sational at it."

"SANS! I HEARD YOU FROM HERE! STOP WITH YOUR ATROCIOUS PUNS!"

"oops." Sans said with a genuine grin, as Fate babbled cheerfully.

"I AM WATCHING YOU!"

"no need to get _ticked_ off." he winked at Fate, who giggled.

"SANS!" Papyrus growled.

"just makin' sure ya won't _clock_ me, boss."

"I WILL END YOU!"

"alright, alright! grumpy bones..." Fate nuzzled Sans' face again at his mumble, who then smiled at her. "let's get some food in yer belly."

Fate hummed cutely in agreement.

* * *

It's been a couple days since Fate had befriended Papyrus and things had become more peaceful around the house. She was playing in the living room near the horizontal heater under the window, which ran across the floor and stretched almost the whole length of that side of the room, keeping her pleasantly warm. She noticed a shadow of something pass by the window. Intrigued, she pushed herself off the floor and made her way to the window, going under the curtain for a proper look. She noticed some snow falling from the sky and decided that she wanted a better look, so she used the metallic top of the heater to give her a boost and held onto the window pane for added support.

Fate cooed softly at the sight of the beautiful shine of freshly fallen snow on the ground, her eyes twinkling in awe. She vaguely wondered if maybe her adoptive father would let her play in it if she asked later, when a red ball flew up and over across her vision. She let out a soft cry of joyous surprise, straining to see if she could see it again. Instead, she saw yellow spikes on top of someone's head peak out from under the window. Curiously, she leaned further to gently press her palms against the window, trying to get a better look when the monster's head popped the rest of the way up.

Spotting movement, the monster turned to look at the window, instantly spotting the human child. They stared at each other for a moment, until Fate gave the monster a wide smile.

The yellow monster was young. He seemed to be a sort of lizard monster, spikes that started on top of his head trailed down his spine and down an impressive tail. He sported a deep red shirt with a black stripe across the middle. He had no arms and strong looking legs.

Instead of smiling back, he scrunched up his face in the most intimidating way he could muster and hissed at the human, but instead of jumping away in a scared fashion, Fate's smile widened further, now giggling at Monster Kid's antics. Slightly confused, he tried again, upping his intimidation and hissed more viciously, but once again it had the opposite effect on the toddler.

What's going on? Why isn't she scared? Monster Kid's confusion shown on his face as he leaned closer toward the toddler, who was now gently patting the window. Now that he's had a better look, she's actually kind of cute. Will she laugh again if he made another face?

Fate has been giggling uncontrollably in the corner for...Well, Sans wasn't exactly sure. He had dozed off in the living room while watching the other kid on T.V, who once again encountered Mettaton, this time on his cooking show. Last he checked, his daughter was playing off to the side with a new toy Grillby was able to obtain for her. However, her sudden loud joyous laughter pulled him from his dreamless nap.

Sitting up and rubbing the sleep from his eye sockets, Sans looked over, curious as to what was giving her so much glee.

"sweet pea, what are ya laughin' 'bout—"

Sans gasped as his SOUL plummeted, seeing his little girl standing on the metallic heater to look out of the window. There, Fate was having a grand old time, babbling nonsense as if talking to someone. Sans, with empty eye sockets, feared for the worst and immediately pulled her away from the window via magic, which made the baby giggle even more.

 _"get away from there!"_ he shouted through a strained voice as he pulled her into him. _"what if someone saw you?!"_ His raised voice coupled with his expression startled her into silence. _"don't **ever** go near that window again, **do** you understand me?!"_

Scared, Fate started crying, not bothering to cling to her adoptive father. Sans sighed, hugging her protectively and making her bury her face into his shoulder, a gentle hand on the back of her head.

"stars, you scared th' livin' hell outta me..." _'someone obviously saw her.' she wasn't gigglin' for nothin'.'_ he thought.

* * *

"There was a reporting of a human in this household." Doggo stood outside of the skelebro's house a couple days after the incident, and had knocked on their door. Accompanying him was Dogamy and Dogaressa, Greater Dog and Lesser Dog.

Sans was home taking care of his daughter, when he had heard knocking on the door. He immediately hid Fate, telling her to be quiet until he said so.

"you honestly think i could hide somethin' like that here? you ain't really met my bro then, have ya?"

"Yeah, just like how he did somethin' about the kid what's been all over T.V with Mettaton?"

Sans' grin fell, his eye lights shrinking.

"Somethin' smells off about you." Dogaressa sniffed in his direction, leaning towards him. Sans leaned away with a face of irritation.

"You smell like a human." Dogamy growled at him, having caught a whiff himself.

"yer pro'bly smellin' th' kid. i, uh...encountered 'em a lil while back." Sans grin was back.

"Then you won't mind if we sniff around?" Doggo asked as the rest of the dogs tried pushing through.

"be my guest." Sans opened the door the rest of the way and stepped out of their path.

If they find something they shouldn't, he's going to make them wish they hadn't.

They sniffed all around the house, even covering the upstairs as well. Besides the whole house smelling like Sans, which is to be expected—who's smelling pretty suspicious—where were no other smells out of the ordinary. Finally, Dogamy called the rest of the dogs downstairs where he stood with Sans, who was wearing a shit-eating smirk.

"There's nothin' out of the ordinary here. Let's go." he eyed Sans as he spoke, who's smirk only grew as they piled out the door.

Just before he closed the door he told them a simple phrase that chilled them to their very core.

 _"d o n ' ."_

And he slammed the door behind them. That's an experience they were sure to remember and one they had a feeling was going to happen. The skeleton brothers really aren't ones who should be reckoned with.

As soon as they were out of sight, Sans teleported to Grillby's back room, effectively startling the elemental, who almost burnt him to a crisp. He must have found her while coming to fetch something.

"You owe me." Grillby sizzled, as he held a stuffed teddy just out of Fate's reach, who was trying desperately to reach it.

It seems he literally popped in on Grillby playing with the babe. Sans grinned at the sight. and he likes to pretend he doesn't care.

"don't i always?"

"I'm running a business, Sans, and babysitting is not part of the job."

"yeah, yeah. i came back quickly enough, didn't i?"

"Never again."

"fine. be that way."

"Take that food with you." Grillby muttered, then promptly left the room.

Next to Fate, he found another container of food Grillby prepared for her.

"WHY WERE THOSE MUTTS IN OUR HOUSE?!"

About an hour later, Papyrus came home and stopped dead center in the living room as Sans lounged on the couch, watching Fate play with her new teddy next to him. Papyrus' face scrunched up more than usual and looked Sans in the eye lights before asking him that question.

"how'd ya know they were here?"

"I KNOW THE HORRID STENCH OF THOSE MANGY MUTTS ANYWHERE. AND YOU HAVE YET TO ANSWER THE QUESTION."

"why do ya think?"

"I KNEW SHE WOULD BRING TROUBLE. I SHOULD HAVE KILLED HER."

Sans gave Papyrus a hard stare. He saw his expression when he uttered those words and he was ready to protect the baby human if he needed to. As soon as Papyrus noticed his expression, he scoffed, giving him a quick smirk, then continued his way towards the stairs.

"MAKE SURE SHE DOESN'T ATTRACT ANYMORE UNNECESSARY ATTENTION." Papyrus turned his head to give his brother a quick glance before he disappeared upstairs. "OR I'LL TAKE CARE OF HER MYSELF."

 _welp..._

At least he's not referring to her as 'it' now.

* * *

She was gone in an instant.

Sans had wondered where his daughter went. He looked everywhere around the house and when he didn't find her, he panicked and headed outside to search. Monsters stayed out of the panicked skeleton's way, fearing his expression. He looked as if someone killed his loved ones, and that's exactly what he was fearing.

She was gone in an instant.

Up and down Snowdin he searched. He left not one rock unturned, not one door unopened. He was going to find his daughter, if it was the last thing he did and if anyone got in his way, they were going to pay the price! He only took his eyes off of her for a moment!

And she was gone in an instant.

Finally, he decided to search the outskirts of town, surely she couldn't have gotten too far, right? With that little waddle she had, he doubted it. First, he decided to search towards the way to Waterfall. There! Waddling her way down, he saw her.

"Fate!" Instantly he called to her and she immediately responded.

She turned around and gave him a wide smile, happy to see him and even before he could tell her to hurry over to him, she did just that. He met her halfway and knelt down to hug her, to make sure she was really in his arms. Her breath tickled his cheek bone as she giggled. He's never letting her go again! When he gets home, he's going to give her a good talking to.

Just as he was about to scoop her up and shortcut back home, a magical spear shot through her back, the head peaking out of her chest. She gave out a strangled gasp, not even having the chance to let out a sound of surprise. Sans froze in place momentarily as he felt her tiny body slump in his arms.

"no. no, no, no, no!" as he pulled away enough to set her body on the snowy ground, the magical spear dispersed into the air, leaving only a gaping wound through Fate's chest.

Fate gaped at him, struggling to breathe, her small, tense body convulsed as her blood pooled beneath her. Sans tried to heal her, a trembling, glowing red hand hovering over her wound. His healing magic isn't the best, but maybe, just maybe—

 _ **"c'mon, fate! don't—"**_

Her body stilled, going limp. Sans' tears streamed down his face and he let out a loud, strangled cry. He felt a small piece of his SOUL go empty. She was so young. Too young.

But she was gone in an instant. Just like that.

Raged grief. Sans stood, looking in the direction that the spear came from, his right eye socket flaring with red magic. By now the culprit was long gone, but he'll find them. He will never let them get away with murdering his child!

Suddenly, Fate started crying. With a shocked expression, Sans whirled around to look at her—

And he found himself sitting up in bed in a cold sweat, out of breath and eye sockets dark. Beside him, Fate was crying softly but in the dead silence, it seemed like the loudest noise he's ever heard.

But it was like music to his nonexistent ears.

He quickly scooped her into his arms, shushing her gently. Her crying was surely going to wake Papyrus. With a still pounding SOUL and fresh tear streaks staining his cheek bones, he watched her slowly go back to sleep and listened to her rhythmic breathing.

 _a nightmare_... Come to think of it, it's been a while since he's had one. Slowly, he let her down on the bed once more and she stirred ever-so-slightly. Before settling back himself, he glanced at the digital clock on his night stand. 7:19 am.

How the fuck was he going back to sleep after that?!

Instead, he opted to laying next to Fate in silence. It was just a nightmare, he told himself. There was no way he was going to let anyone harm Fate. They'll have to get through him first.

* * *

Again, the kid with the flower was on T.V. This time, they were on MTT News. They were going to die for sure this time.

"Dada?" he heard from right in front of him.

Fate was playing with both of her toys near the middle of the living room. He noticed she had a sort of thoughtful expression since a while ago, but the news was too interesting to pass up.

"what is it, sweet pea?" Sans replied without looking away from the T.V.

He doesn't think he's going to get used to Fate calling him 'Dad', but he learned to respond to it at least.

"Bos?"

That's a good question. Papyrus has been out for most of the day. Sans saw him home earlier, but other than that he's pretty much been MIA. He's probably working.

"eh. he lives here. he'll be home later." Sans waved away her concern.

"Mm!" Fate shook her head in an exaggerated fashion and decided to insist. "Bos!"

Dammit, he's going to miss the best part of the news!

"what do ya me to do? Huh?! ya wanna hire a freakin' search party for 'im?!" Sans was getting irritated, but it had little effect on his daughter.

"Uh! Luk!" she nodded.

"we ain't goin' out lookin' fer 'im, he can take care of his own damn self!" Fate crawled up onto his lap for a proper face to face. "so stop worryin'."

"Dada! Luk!"

"heyeyey! who's th' parent here?! it sure as hell ain't you!"

"Dada~"

"i said, no." he said sternly. "now sit yer ass down, i can't see the tv."

Fate whined in a tone that Sans knew meant she was going to start her waterworks.

"listen. the boss' pro'bly at undyne's, so he's fine. he'll be back b'fore it gets too late."

"Undin?"

"she's boss' friend who you ain't ever gonna meet."

Fate finally sat on his lap, silently playing with the fluff of his jacket, allowing him to watch T.V. He watched the kid doubled over, panting with beads of sweat on their brow and the flower on their shoulder as usual, looking at them with concern. Dammit, he missed what happened, but it seems like they once again survived the killer robot. This kid is really something else.

They might die next time.

Suddenly, the front door opened forcefully, revealing Papyrus with a deeper scowl than usual.

"sup boss." Sans greeted with his usual grin.

"Up bos." Fate tried to imitate her father with a smile that matched his grin. Sans ruffled her hair in praise at the attempt.

"YOU NEED TO LEAVE. NOW. GET UP." he eyed him down with an intense stare.

Sans' smile fell. "w-what's goin' on?" he got up nonetheless, taking Fate with him.

"UNDYNE HEARD ABOUT Fate," he pointed at the toddler. "AND IS COMING TO SNOWDIN TO SEARCH."

Of all the rotten luck!

"SHE'S ORDERED THE MEMBERS OF THE ROYAL GUARD TO SEARCH AS WELL, SO YOU NEED TO LEAVE. RIGHT NOW."

"how the hell did she find out about Fate?!"

"ALPHYS THOUGHT SHE SAW HER THROUGH ONE OF HER CAMERAS. APPARENTLY, SHE JUST NOW NOTICED WHEN SHE WAS LOOKING OVER THE FOOTAGE."

As Papyrus explained, Sans hurried to grab a couple of essentials and stuffed them into a small book bag he had laying around. He didn't think he would find a use for it, but he's glad he didn't decide to throw it out.

"ALPHYS FIGURED THE SECOND HUMAN MUST HAVE STUMBLED THROUGH SNOWDIN BY NOW." he eyed Sans as he put down the babe to put the straps of the bag over his shoulders. "I WILL NOT BE ABLE TO BUY YOU ANYMORE TIME THAN THIS, SANS."

"this's all i need." he replied, zipping down his sweater, picking up his daughter again and sticking her in.

"Dada?" Fate piped up before he fully zipped up his sweater.

"i need you to listen to me very carefully." he looked her straight in the eyes. "you need to stay quiet and i need you to stay still. understand?"

"Mm." she nodded.

"that's my girl." he zipped his sweater the rest of the way, as he held her up with one hand by her backside. He felt Fate's little hands bunch up his shirt in her fists. Papyrus was a step away from stepping outside when he muttered,

"DON'T GET HER KILLED." and he was out the door, closing it behind him.

* * *

"...RESET..."

"S-Sans...?"

Sans trembled as he stood in front of the child with the flower, while carrying a SOULess Fate in his arms. He looked up from Fate's limp and pale form to look at Frisk in the eyes. Flowey stared at the toddler, wearing a mixed expression of knowing and sadness.

"i said, RESET."

"...She's already died twice. Even if I did RESET, she'll just die again." Sans' gaze darkened, his eye lights disappearing. "H-Her death is set, there's nothing—"

In a flash, he was holding Frisk by the front of their shirt, their feet above the ground to meet Sans at eye level. Fate was laying by his feet.

 ** _" T."_**

"W-What do you think you're doing?!" Flowey cried, fearful for Frisk's life.

"S-Sans..." Frisk choked out, their naturally soft voice reduced to a rasped whisper.

"if you don't, _i'll make you_!" he said, making Frisk's SOUL pop out of their chest.

Frisk realized in terror that Sans is not taking 'no' for an answer and he will not stop until he gets what he wants. Before he can take hold of their SOUL, Flowey bit his hand, but instead of dropping the human like the flower thought he would, he instead grabbed Flowey by his stem with his free hand, threatening to break it on the spot. There was a pause pregnant with dangerous tension, leaving everyone as stiff as a rock.

But after a moment he suddenly let go, letting Frisk land on their rump. They were so stunned, they simply stared at Sans. Flowey curved around Frisk's shoulders protectively, hissing at the skeleton.

"...again." Sans muttered after an awkward moment of silence.

"H-Huh?"

"let me try again. one last time. i'll save her."

Frisk felt bad, but they knew that if Fate had already died twice, then it's most likely written into the timeline. It doesn't matter how many times they reset; the outcome will always be the same and with the way Sans is acting, they know he won't stop until he gets to the point where the timeline gets corrupted and he goes insane.

They can't do that to him, but it doesn't look like Sans is giving them a choice. They know that if they refuse, he's going to kill them and that will trigger a RESET even if Frisk doesn't want it.

Because Frisk doesn't want to die.

Slowly, the human stood up, keeping Sans' gaze the whole way up, then took a deep breath.

"One last time." Frisk spoke clearly.

Sans' eye lights returned, although dim. Frisk reached out and a floating red box with the word 'LOAD' appeared in front of them.

"This will be your last chance. I won't RESET to that point again." Frisk explained further.

Sans nodded, feeling DETERMINED. He _will_ make sure his Fate doesn't die.

As Frisk placed their hand on LOAD, Sans closed his eyes. He didn't feel the world shift. It was sudden—almost instantaneous—there was nothing but darkness and he was back in Waterfall, in the company of the Echo flowers.

But most importantly, he was holding a bundle of warmth, tucked safely under his fluffy sweater. For the third time.

This was his last chance. He sure as hell is not going to fuck this up.

This time, he won't let her out until he absolutely needs to.

She wiggled a bit and he knew exactly what was happening, but he kept walking. Despite already having gone through this, Sans still doesn't know where he's going. In a little while, she's going to shift again, poke her head out and—

"Dada~" Right on time. "Wee!"

He stopped walking.

His first slip up was letting her walk to a corner to relieve herself by her lonesome. He was sure she was going to come back on her own, and she would have, if she hadn't been distracted by Onionsan.

 _The sea monster had heard about the second human in the Underground and already knew the recent news about how it needed to be captured. She knew the first human to go by here—who was accompanied by a wary golden flower monster—was nice, offering friendly chit chat and promising to come back for a visit, but this one?_

 _Oh..._

 _She's so tiny! And so cute! How was she a danger?_

 _"Fate?"_

 _D'aww, that's a cute name. Fate giggled and playfully reached for a yellow tentacle that came up and wiggled in front of her. Onionsan distracted her, trapping her with another tentacle and slowly lifted her to her face. Her smile was wicked, knowing she would get rewarded for this. However, she also felt bad. Such a small human...She had to be a baby, right? But, no matter the age, humans don't belong in the underground._

 _"Fate?!"_

 _Sans found her laying on the ground near the edge of the water and rushed over to her side. He knelt down, picking her head off the ground, tears already gathering at the corner of his eye sockets. He noticed her clothes felt damp, which would have confused him, but he was too focused on the fact that although she seemed unharmed, she was missing her soul._

 _And then, the world went black and he was holding his daughter in his sweater again. Quickly, he left, clearly shaken and found a much safer place for her to pee, watching their surroundings closely, just in case, until she finished._

Thinking back on it now, it must have been that idiot octopus! No, this time she will pee in the water! Quickly, he set her down and took out her towel from the back pack.

Fate whined, wiggling in discomfort. She has to _go_!

"hold on a lil bit longer fer me, sweet pea." Sans told her as he took off her pants, then promptly held the bottom half of her body in the water. "alright, go."

She shivered and protested, the water being a tad too cold to her liking, but the feeling of the water itself made her release nonetheless. He waited until she wiggled again, the green light for when she finished.

 _good. hope that bitch octopus chokes on it._

After taking her out of the water, he wiped her down with the towel, stuck it back in his bag, then stuck Fate back in his sweater after dressing her back up, but left it open enough for her head to poke out. He doesn't need to worry about hiding her again until Hotland.

Sans knew Hotland well enough to know where he can take shortcuts so Fate will remain unseen. Hotland is especially dangerous, mostly because he can't hide her away in his sweater. It's too hot, she's likely to get heat stroke. Hell, that's likely now, and she's not even in his sweater anymore! So he tried his best to keep prying eyes away from her, keeping her behind his legs at the very least. Somehow, he managed it and when he felt close enough to MTT hotel, he teleported to a room he's seen too much of.

The room's walls were plainly colored, much to anyone's surprise if you're thinking about the idol that owns the hotel. There was a large bed against the wall parallel to the front door. To the left and right of the bed stood nightstands with small, overly fancy Metteton-shaped lamps perched on top. Against the wall to the left of the room stood a good sized dresser with a large mirror and to the right of the room stood a large mini fridge, which was next to the bathroom door.

Everything he could ever need is in this room. He should be safe here for a while, but he won't be staying here for long. Just one night should be all right, enough to get some rest and a good night's sleep. Also, the walls were thick for several reasons, so if Fate decided to be noisy, this room is the ideal place.

Sans completely unzipped his sweater, setting her down as soon as he landed inside the room and then sat himself on the plushy large bed. He watched Fate look around at her new surroundings, even walked around, exploring the large room. Eventually, he noticed she walked up to where he was resting with a slight confused expression. Is the trip over?

"we stay here fer a lil bit." he vaguely explained when he noticed her expression, then he let the rest of himself fall onto the bed.

The one thing he was always grateful for in this room was how soft and comfortable the bed was. His bed back home felt like it was made of hay in comparison.

"Bos?"

"we'll pro'bly see 'im later." He honestly hoped not.

"Luk?"

 _"no."_ he firmly stated. "we're goin' on without 'im this time."

What comes next? Asgore. Sans was such a fool, he lead Fate right to him last time. While Frisk manage to melt Asgore's frozen heart, Fate never got the chance.

 _Frisk had just finished gaining Asgore's MERCY and decided against doing anything with the barrier momentarily, deciding to visit their friends and tell them the good news, when Sans and Fate reached the castle. What Sans hoped to gain from visiting the King with the second fallen human, he wasn't sure. Maybe he thought, with how Frisk was changing the Underground with their MERCY, that Asgore's heart was changed enough that maybe he can call off the hunt for the babe, if only he gave Fate a chance. Surely a defenseless baby can convince him._

 _But Asgore instead saw another opportunity, a second SOUL he can use to finally, finally rid the Underground of that cursed barrier once and for all!_

 _Sans walked the castle halls, having Fate walk along side him. He honestly doesn't remember what distracted him long enough for Fate to get away from him, it couldn't have been for more than a second that he looked away, but by the time he noticed and rushed after Fate, the King had already ripped the SOUL from her and was breaking the barrier._

 _Frisk came back to a broken barrier, a SOULess toddler and a numb skeleton that had already grieved and had stared at the human with an idea. Frisk could reset, so Sans proceeded to ask them._

But this was his last chance. He could at least rest. He has until tomorrow for Frisk to fight Asgore and win his heart with their pacifism.

Fate whined feeling hungry, giving Sans a pained, "Dada..."

Knowing her cues, Sans groaned as he sat up once more to open his bag and dig out the container of food he brought for her. He helped her up on the bed and she waited patiently to be fed, he also had some water in case she got thirsty. After this, it's her bath time and then bed.

This is perfect. He can breath easy in this room, knowing that no one will come to look for her here. He let her play in the water as he bathed her and when it was time for bed, he lay with her, hugging her to his chest and purring lowly; he knew the sound and vibrations puts her right to sleep.

* * *

"Sans..."

He managed to catch up to Frisk, who was on their way to the castle. Fate was once again hidden in his sweater, but was peeking out slightly.

"kid." he greeted flatly.

"When I MERCY Asgore, this will all be over." Frisk said, filled with DETERMINATION. "By the way, I can't return to that time again."

"i got it." Sans replied, a bit too rough than he meant. "I've been meanin' to ask yer lil friend there..." Flowey and Frisk gave each other a glance before giving Sans their full attention again. "how'dya know Fate? i remember that look you gave her that time and i sure as hell didn't introduce her to ya."

His face darkened, trying to intimidate the flower to say nothing but the truth or else. It seemed to work as Flowey flinched away from his gaze before answering.

"O-One of the times I separated from Frisk, I decided to check the ruins just in case." Flowey paused to gauge Sans' expression, but it was hard to read. "The caretaker of the ruins had found her by then, but I felt bad leaving her with her, s-so I helped her escape when she was unattended." Flowey's words turned rushed when Sans' gaze turned angry. "I-I was separated from Frisk for too long by then, I-I grew worried! When I came back to her I couldn't find her anywhere!"

That was probably after Sans found her. The story adds up so he went back to his neutral grinning face and shrugged.

"makes sense."

Flowey let out a silent sigh of relief. Without another word, Frisk turned and continued onward, Sans following behind them. Eventually, Fate started feeling hot and smothered, so she started to fidget. Sans got the hint, stopping long enough to let her out and took her tiny hand with his thumb and index finger, her hand wrapped around his index.

"don't let go of my hand." he instructed as he eyed the stray pacified monsters scattered about. His eye lights burned into them, letting every monster know that if they neared Fate, they'll be sorry.

"Ya." she replied, curious about the monsters that scurried away from Sans' gaze.

Finally, the small group got to the throne room's door way. Sans didn't dare enter, the one person he's trying to avoid is in there. Instead he waited for the human child to enter, staying away from the doorway in case Asgore so happens to glance that way. His plan was to wait for Asgore to be pacified, for the barrier to be broken. Only then will Fate be safe enough to roam around freely.

By then, Asgore won't touch Fate. He wouldn't have a reason to, the barrier would already be broken, then they can meet up with Papyrus and they can all be free once again.

Sans heard Frisk's soft voice, then Asgore's. After a while of speaking to each other, it grew silent until the sounds of fighting erupted, almost startling Sans.

 _And so it begins._

He decided to sit by the door, pulling Fate into his lap. He was afraid that if he let her go, even for a fraction of a second, she would wander off somewhere she shouldn't and she would—

 _nope, don't think about that._

His cellphone rang in his pocket, startling him enough to make him jump. When he glanced at the caller ID, he noted it was Papyrus.

"bro?" Sans answered.

"WHERE ARE YOU?"

"...that a trick question?" Sans rose a bone brow.

"NO! I WANTED TO CHECK ON YOU AND I WANT TO KNOW WHERE YOU ARE. FOR NO REASON!"

OK, yup, _that's_ not suspicious at all.

"Parus?" Fate tried speaking to him, hearing his boisterous voice through the receiver.

"sorry, boss, but i can't disclose that info. gotta go."

"SANS, DON'T YOU—" that was all he heard before he hung up on him and for further security, he took out the battery from his cell too.

That was a warning. There's no way Papyrus would be that clumsy. He may be a softy at his core, but he's not clumsy.

That means the Guard knows he has Fate.

And it also means they were on his trail until just recently, so it's only a matter of time before they search the castle. He stood, deciding he should keep moving after all or at least hide somewhere until Frisk breaks the barrier. He could go back to his hotel room, but just like anywhere else he could think of, it would only be a matter of time. He paced around the side of the door frame, not once passing in front of the opening.

Where can he go? The dogs would split up and search Snowdin forest and Snowdin, Undyne would be searching Waterfall, Royal Guards 01 and 02 would be searching Hotland and Papyrus would search literally anywhere else that Sans would likely visit. There is virtually nowhere Sans could hide and he just about forgot the hotel room is a place Papyrus knows he uses! Sans started to sweat.

Where can he go?!

There was a quick flash of darkness, he blinked and suddenly he was sitting down again with Fate on his lap.

 _wait, wha—_

His cellphone rang in his pocket, startling him enough to make him jump. When he glanced at the caller ID, he noted it was Papyrus.

 _shit, kid, seriously?!_

"bro." Sans answered, standing up and taking Fate with him.

"WHERE ARE YOU?"

"...boss, ya really wanna do this?"

"ANSWER THE QUESTION, SANS." he voice became firm.

Sans sighed. "sorry." he hang up on him, using his magic to pull the battery out and stuff his phone and the battery in his pocket. He has a feeling this is going to take a while. It hasn't even been an hour and already the kid died once.

Frisk died several times, judging by the amount of RESETS. Each time sending Sans back to sitting on the floor with Fate in his lap and Papyrus calling his cell. Each time, Sans answered and each time he tried some form of pleading, to try and convince his brother to stop going after him and Fate. He failed each time. This time, he simply gave one firm, dead serious statement.

"stop comin' after us, papyrus."

Papyrus was silent on the other line, most likely stunned.

"UNDYNE WILL BE VISITING THE KING TO GIVE HIM OUR REPORTS." Papyrus finally answered, his words strained. "WHERE ARE YOU, SANS?!"

That's the moment Sans understood the true reason why Papyrus was asking. He must have found a place to safely call him. Fate had managed to dig herself deep into Papyrus' SOUL and he was now feeling the effects of hunting down his niece.

Sans slowly uttered, "the king's castle." before it was RESET once more.

He didn't know how many more RESETS he could take. Did Frisk RESET this many times last time they fought the king? Yes, they did. Thinking about it, he recalls the idiot octopus and having to chase away the same monster who was trying to get to Fate four times before it finally settled down enough for him to move on to another monster who was trying to do the exact same thing.

He stood up one last time, his phone ringing in his pocket. If it RESETS again, screw it, he won't stand up again and he won't answer his cell.

Upon answering, Papyrus didn't start with the usual, "WHERE ARE YOU?"

"UNDYNE IS ON HER WAY TO THE CASTLE, TELL ME YOU ARE NOT STILL THERE!" a small confused sound escaped him, followed by a confused Sans.

 _somethin' changed._

 ** _"So you were here the whole time, huh?!"_**

Fuck.

"thanks fer the heads up, pap, but uh, she found us."

Sans heard him start to say something before he hung up on him. That should be enough of a clue for him to figure out where he was. He stood in front of Fate protectively and focused his magic on Fate's favorite teddy bear in his bag.

"I'll admit you have some guts, traitor." Undyne was scowling at him. "Who would have thought you'd be hidin' in the castle? Shouldn't you be runnin' in the opposite direction? Or maybe it's not guts you have, but stupidity."

"and here i thought Papyrus liked to talk."

"Hand over the small human, Sans."

"yeah, no." Sans quickly replied.

Undyne darkly chuckled. "S'definitely stupidity."

She got into her signature fighting stance that Sans knew well, while he simply stood there, hands in his pockets. He closed his eye sockets, taking a deep breath before opening his eyes again. Red magic overflowed one of his eye sockets, the other an empty void.

"Fate." the little girl looked up at her father's big back. "mr. ted's playin' hide 'n seek." Sans gestured behind her. "find 'im quick!"

A fun little game he enjoyed playing with her. He would hide her favorite stuffed teddy bear and she would go look for it. He would follow her around the house, telling her whether she was getting colder or warmer. Also enjoying this game, the toddler cheered while clapping her hands, then turned and started running to look for the teddy.

 **"Oh, no, you don't!"**

Undyne lunged toward her, but Sans quickly blocked her way, spiked, red bones springing up in front of her. If she had taken an extra step forward, he would have impaled her, so she instead stumbled backward, glaring at the skeleton.

 ** _'we're gonna hav e.'_** he thought, his perma-grin turned into a smirk as the hallway's air became so heavy with magic, you can choke on it.

"yer gettin' warmer!" Sans spoke to Fate as she turned the corner behind him, summoning a red, spiked bone to his hand. He short-cutted directly in front of Undyne to be in her face. "keep yer eye on yer opponent!"

He swung his weapon as he spoke and Undyne barely dodged it. She felt the hot sting of concentrated magic as it grazed her cheek.

"You little—" Sans didn't let her finish her sentence, sending flying spiked bones at her.

To dodge, she back flipped and slashed the rest away with her magical spear, his magic dispersing into the air. Sans sent another flying bone attack her way and she easily dodged it, quickly moving away and rounding the corner.

Excellent. Now Undyne is at a perfect distance away from Fate. He just has to keep her away.

Spotting an opening, she dashed for it, trying to get back to the toddler, but Sans had another wall of bones spring up from under her feet. This time the wall reached the ceiling and once again made her stagger backwards. Sans quickly filled in the space between her and the wall of bones by short-cutting in between and once again swinging at her, but she won't fall for the same trick twice. She instead blocked it with her spear and made to brute force him back, but he disappeared, reappearing beside her as she stumbled forward with a wide eye and he kicked her into the wall.

Undyne growled viciously at him, frustrated. Why can't she get passed him?!

"SANS!" Just then, Papyrus appeared behind her, his eye lights searching the area around him.

It was obvious who he was looking for.

"Papyrus!" Undyne called out to him. "Take the small human's SOUL—AH!"

Sans interrupted her yet again, this time turning her SOUL blue, slamming her into the wall, then making her fly to the other end of the hall passed Papyrus.

"SANS, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

"protectin' my daughter." Sans looked his surprised brother—who quickly recovered—straight in the eye lights. "no one's layin' a finger on a strand of her hair s'long i'm around."

He watched Undyne shakily stand up on the other side of the hall. Her eyes locked with his, her expression livid.

"Where Is She?" Papyrus' voice was lower than his usual volume.

"mr. ted's playin' hide 'n seek with her." Sans smirked.

"GOOD. KEEPS HER OUT OF THE WAY." Papyrus said, conjuring a long spiked bone weapon into his hand.

"Papyrus!" Undyne spoke up, noticing he wasn't exactly going against his brother. "Don't tell me yer goin' against the King, too?!"

Papyrus hesitated, slowly turning to face her.

"I CAN'T LET YOU HURT HER, UNDYNE."

Sans was surprised to hear his brother of all monsters say that. His perma-grin turned genuine as he smiled at him.

 _and he acts like he doesn't care._

"Don't make me take you down, too." Undyne lowly said, a small plea in her eye.

Papyrus was still her friend. She didn't want to go against him if she didn't have to, but she could see that she might have to for the King.

"WHETHER I LIKE IT OR NOT," he gave her a hardened stare and spoke slowly. "THAT... _HUMAN_ IS MY NIECE. I WILL NOT LET YOU HURT MY NIECE."

"I'm sorry it has to go this way, Pap," Undyne truly was sorry, her SOUL feeling heavy. She once again got into her fighting stance, conjuring a magical spear. "But you leave me no choice." She flew at the brothers. "En garde!"

Undyne truly was a skilled fighter. She fought as if her life depended on it and took on both brothers with such skill, it was clear why she was the captain of the Royal Guard. But everyone has their limits, even she was starting to get overwhelmed—especially with how well the brothers fought together. They pushed her back enough that they eventually re-entered the Judgment Hall.

 _'well, isn't this perfect.'_ Sans thought with a smirk.

Fate had wandered to the basement of the castle, finally finding her favorite teddy resting against a strange box. She gave the box no mind, completely proud of herself at winning one of her favorite games. She quickly went over, picked up the teddy and hugged the lights out of it, giggling happily. She was sure she saw it in the bag her father was carrying around, but it doesn't matter. She won!

Usually Sans would congratulate her in some way and she found it strange that he wasn't behind her, cheering her on or telling her whether she was close or not.

"Dada?" she looked around the room, but started getting sad when she couldn't find him.

He has to be around here somewhere, there's no way he would just leave her. Hugging her teddy tighter for confidence, she made her way back up the stairs, to look for her adoptive father.

Coming to the hallway they started in, she saw the bag Sans all but abandoned and went for it, thinking about what direction Sans could have possibly went. There's the door next to her. She remembered that big kid with the pretty flower went in there. Before she went to go find her teddy, Sans' back was facing her and when he called out that she was getting warmer, she glanced back and his back was still facing her. Come to think of it, he looked kind of tense? Doesn't matter, have to find him. She continued down the hallway, around the corner and down another hallway. Just as she was about to give up and start crying, she thought she heard her father's voice and followed it, finding herself back in the pretty room from before. There he was! Happily, she walked towards him and called out to let him know she was there. She saw his head turn toward her voice with a mix of confusion and surprise on his skeletal features. Without his eye lights, he looked intimidating, but Fate shook it off as Sans reached a hand toward her.

"don't come over here!" the urgency in his voice made her stop in her tracks and also got the attention of Papyrus as well as Undyne. "go hide!"

Before she lost it, Undyne seized the opportunity. She got a running start toward the toddler and jumped over Sans, who tried to block her way. Undyne outstretched her arm with an open hand toward Fate, the babe's SOUL flickering into view. Sans took hold of Undyne's SOUL just before she reached her, slamming her down—startling Fate—and making her fly away once more to Papyrus who used his bone weapon as a bat and hit her in the side as if she were a baseball. Undyne was pushed back slightly from the force and she double over with a pained face, placing a hand where Papyrus hit her. The tall skeleton then stood in front of her to obscure her view of his niece as Sans tried to usher a now crying Fate back into the next room.

Papyrus' frown deepened. He didn't want this. He didn't want to fight his friend, didn't want to see her in this state because of him, but she left him no choice.

"UNDYNE ." Papyrus called her attention. "STOP TRYING. WE CAN END THIS NOW, IF YOU STOP PERUSING Fate."

"The King needs just one more SOUL." she growled out.

"The KING CANNOT HAVE THIS ONE."

This is a problem. Fate has decided that she will not leave Sans' side now that she's crying. She wants him to pick her up and console her as he always does when she's upset, but this isn't the best time for this! He shot Papyrus a glance to make sure he's got Undyne and Papyrus caught his gaze.

 _'m takin' Fate into the next room._ Sans communicated with his eyes.

Papyrus nodded, understanding him and Sans picked up Fate and hurried on his way to the next room.

In a fit of anger, Undyne launched a magical spear up from behind Papyrus and struck his back, startling him immobile for a moment and Undyne launched herself at Sans who was still rushing toward the next room. Hearing Papyrus cry out in pain, Sans turned to look and found himself face to face with Undyne. She reached out as quick as she could, the toddler's SOUL once again flickered into view in front of her and she took a tight hold of it, her smile growing wicked in victory. It was almost too fast for Sans to react. In a panic, Sans summoned a Gaster Blaster and fired at her, launching her away from him and his baby back toward Papyrus. However, instead of letting go of her SOUL in surprise, the fish captain held on tighter and protected it from the blaster's attack, effectively ripping the SOUL right out of Fate. The babe jerked forward in response and her wide eyes instantly grew vacant. Sans held her protectively as she slumped in his arms.

 _no...no, no, no, no! stars!_

 ** _"Fate!"_**

It felt like the fish lady took his SOUL instead and was squeezing every drop of life out of it. Sans let tears freely stream down his cheek bones.

As he recovered, Papyrus saw the teal colored SOUL gripped in Undyne's fist and saw her in a red light as his magic flared up in anger. He flew at her at a speed she's never seen him move before and he caught her by surprise, injuring her hand with the sharp end of his large spiked bone weapon. He caused her to drop the poor SOUL with a mixed cry of pain and surprise. Papyrus caught the SOUL before it touched the ground and pulled up a large wall of blue bones on all sides around Undyne, when he saw her start to lunge toward it.

"SANS!" Papyrus called as he attacked Undyne. His tone was sharp and stern, snapping Sans out of his grief. "STOP YOUR SLOBBERING AND CATCH!"

Without another warning, he threw the SOUL his way and Sans easily caught it with his magic before it had a chance to collide into anything. With Fate still in his arms, he sent one last furious glare at Undyne and promptly disappeared out of the Judgment Hall.

Sans reappeared somewhere in Waterfall, the glow of the crystals around them lit them up in an almost eerie way.

He quickly set Fate down and pressed her SOUL against her chest.

"c'mon, c'mon!" he urged quietly through a strained voice when her SOUL stayed put instead of slipping into her body like it should. "why isn't it—just get into her body, ya little shit!"

For some reason, Fate's SOUL just wasn't responding to her body and it was starting to scare him. A sudden little _crack!_ noise petrified him. For a moment, he stayed as still and stiff as a rod, until he heard it again, the noise coming from just beneath his hand. Holding the SOUL gently, he turned it over to see it had a small section on the top right missing and a small fissure in the middle. Fresh tears rolled down his cheek bones as he let the SOUL slip from his hand and onto her chest.

"stars...Fate—"

He choked, his voice stopping in his throat.

She's dying.

She's dying and there's nothing he could do about it. Not even the kid is going to help him. _that nightmare from before...a magical spear._

It's happening again. For the third time.

He lifted her body and hugged her to his chest, doing the only thing he could: he sobbed for her, his tears soaking the ground beneath him.

He realized all he did for her was in vain.

He realized he wouldn't get to see her go to school.

Wouldn't get to see her grow.

 _Crack!_

Wouldn't get to chase boys away when she came of age.

Wouldn't get to eat with her anymore.

 _Crack!_

Watch TV with her anymore.

Nap and sleep with her.

Laugh with her!

 _Crack!_

STARS!

She was so young. _Too young!_

 _'my baby! my little girl!'_

His SOUL reached out to hers, without his knowledge and connected to hers—which was between their bodies—instantly filling in the blanks of her SOUL with his. It was an intense feeling, one he couldn't compare to anything else he's ever felt and with a startled gasp, he felt weak and his vision blurred growing dark, darker and darker still until he collapsed into a dreamless slumber, still holding his child in his arms.

* * *

"Sans...Wake up..."

The voice was pleading, distant, but he felt so, so tired. Just five more minutes he thought and he rolled over.

"SANS!"

A smack to the skull startled him awake, enough to make him sit up.

"YOU—" He found Papyrus glowering down at him, but knowing his brother like the back of his hand, he found worry in his angry expression. "HOW DARE YOU!"

Hold on? He's laying in bed? How did he get here?

"what'd i do?" his voice sounded more gruff than usual.

"YOU WERE ASLEEP FOR THE REST OF YESTERDAY AND MOST OF TODAY! IF IT WEREN'T FOR ME COMING TO WAKE YOU UP, YOU WOULD HAVE SLEPT RIGHT THROUGH ALL OF TODAY AND DON'T YOU TRY TO DENY IT!"

"wouldn't _dream_ of it—" a sudden realization came to him, his eye lights vanishing. His baby! "where is she?!"

"UGH! WILL YOU STOP WITH YOUR HIDEOUS PUNS, YOU GOOD-FOR-NOTHING. NOW, GET UP! WE HAVE MUCH TO—"

"papyrus, where _is_ _she_?!"

"THAT'S BOSS TO YOU, ESPECIALLY AFTER THIS STUNT YOU PULLED!"

"b-boss..."

"SPARE ME YOUR THEATRICS. THE PET IS OUTSIDE."

"she's what?!"

Sans rushed out of bed, almost stumbling on his way downstairs. His brother called out to him, but he was much too focused on locating Fate. His SOUL pulled him toward the front door, which he found too strange to not question, but Fate comes first. He tore open the door and the scene in front him stunned him speechless, his eye lights dimly reappearing.

He found a laughing Fate—who was clad in winter wear, where she got that, he has no idea—running away from a hissing Monster Kid, who was clearly not trying to frighten her. In fact, he was smiling and Sans was one hundred percent positive that he could run so much faster than that slow trot he was doing after her. Another little surprise he found was Frisk jogging beside Monster Kid with a goofy grin on their face and Papyrus' scarf? They were under-dressed for the weather, but he noticed they wore gloves, a hat and Papyrus' scarf, weirdly enough.

Papyrus willingly gave them his scarf?

"IF YOU INSIST ON STANDING BY THE OPEN DOOR WAY, YOU COULD AT LEAST WEAR YOUR SWEATER!" Papyrus' voice behind him almost startled him and he suddenly felt his sweater drop onto his head.

Sans continued to stare while also slowly putting on his sweater.

"...what happened?"

"WHAT HAPPENED, BROTHER, IS THAT I BROUGHT YOU AND Fate BACK HOME WHEN I FOUND YOU TWO AFTER HOURS OF LOOKING FOR YOU AFTER YOU DISAPPEARED. BE GRATEFUL!"

"thanks, bro." Sans looked at him with a genuine smile and wide sockets.

Papyrus grunted for a response. "I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU DID, BUT I WAS SURE SHE DIED."

"i don't know..."

"HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW WHAT YOU DID?!"

A smiling Frisk suddenly appeared in front of them, the brothers not noticing when they walked over.

"How are you feeling, Sans?" Frisk asked.

"what's goin' on, kid?"

"The barrier's broken."

"No shit...?"

"IT IS TRUE, SANS." Papyrus piped up.

"w-what about undyne?"

"DESPITE YOU HAVING LEFT WITH THE PET, I WAS STILL BATTLING HER WHEN HUMAN FRISK TOLD US THE NEWS. THERE WAS REASON TO FIGHT NO LONGER."

"I wanted all of us to go up to the surface together. The King's waiting for me to return to go up."

 _waiting?_ "who's all of us?"

"Just meet up in the room after the throne room in the castle. There's something I need to do before I go." Frisk answered briskly and left to finish their business, waving at Monster Kid as he passed him.

"Dada!"

Fate, finally noticing that Sans was up, ran up to him and Sans immediately welcomed her with open arms. He picked her up as soon as she landed in his arms and hugged her as tightly as her small body could handle. He suddenly felt a sense of being complete, his SOUL thrumming loudly in his nonexistent ears.

She's alive! _Stars_ , she's alive! He wasn't sure how, but he did it! This is the happiest he's ever felt in his entire life.

Fate put her tiny hands on the sides of his face and nuzzled her face against his skull.

"heya, sweet pea." he muttered against her.

"Heya, seepee." she repeated after him.

Sans chuckled, his eye lights growing in happiness.

"GET INSIDE OR STEP OUTSIDE, BUT STOP STANDING AT THE DOOR WAY AND CLOSE THE DOOR!" He heard Papyrus yell out from somewhere inside the house, effectively ruining their short moment.

Suddenly, he became aware that Monster Kid was standing some feet away, shuffling a bit nervously on his feet and staring.

"I-Is she done playing?" he piped up when Sans' eye lights landed on him.

Sans stared at him for a moment then turned his attention to the toddler in his arms.

"wanna play some more?"

"Ya!"

"go get him." Sans said playfully as he set her down. He then turned his attention back on M.K, his expression suddenly turning serious and his eye lights going out. "Don't hurt her."

M.K shivered slightly as a chill from Sans' intimidating stare ran down his spine.

"I won't." he quickly replied, then turned to join her.

Sans exhaled through his nose cavity, watching the two continue their play from earlier before stepping inside the house and closing the door. He failed to see Papyrus in the kitchen or the living room, so he guessed he was in his room. Sans felt a small, strange twinge of disconnection, like as if a piece of the puzzle he called his SOUL was missing. He's been feeling strange since he woke up, this is something he needs to investigate. Once in his room again, he sat down on his bed and placed a hand over his SOUL. He paused for a second, thinking that there shouldn't be anything different about his SOUL.

Right?

He pulled it out carefully and immediately noticed a change. It's smaller? Not only does that not make sense, he also has no idea what it means. Alright, think, what makes a SOUL change size?

One example would be if you want to disappear. If you're so scared shitless that you want to disappear off the face of the Underground, your SOUL shrinks itself so small that it's almost impossible to detect, effectively making you virtually invisible to monsters as long as you stay hidden.

But he's not shitting himself in fear, in fact he's not scared in the slightest, just confused and maybe even a little concerned. Plus, his SOUL didn't shrink that much, just a little, but that's never-the-less noticeable to him.

Another example of SOULs changing size would be involving a SOUL bond. It happens to monsters and in theory, humans as well if they're getting involved with a monster. Both SOULs would grow a bit to accommodate for the other. A SOUL bond has two SOULs touch, entwining with one another so they're both quite literally joined and both parties would become one. It's a lovely, consensual bond and only happens with those who have a significant other. It is impossible to SOUL bond with someone who don't share mutual feelings.

Therefore, it is impossible for that to be a possibility for Sans' situation. Apart from the previous examples, SOULs do not change sizes.

He has absolutely no idea what was going on. The only thing that would give him some kind of clue would be Fate's SOUL. She was the last one with him before he knocked out and woke up in his bed.

He'll check it later. She always sleeps with him anyway.

Since it was already afternoon, the rest of the day went by quickly. Frisk came by a second time to make sure that Sans, Papyrus and even Fate will make it to the King's castle to break the surface together, then went on their way once they were given the OK.

Sans called Fate back into the house and stripped her of the winter clothes, before they left for the castle. She shivered, even while in the house that was well heated, but before he could think to once again stick her in his sweater, she did it herself, taking both sides of the open sweater and trying to close it around her. Sans chuckled at her antics and helped her out by zipping up his sweater halfway and scooping her up. She giggled in joy and snuggled into him once she was wrapped in warmth.

"ready to go, boss?" Sans asked when his brother came down the stairs and stood beside him.

"JUST HURRY IT UP."

Without another moment's hesitation, he touched Papyrus' arm and shortcutted to the King's castle, in the hallway right before the throne room. Sans was honestly done with this hallway and he wouldn't mind not coming back here for a good long while. Sans let Fate out, confident she won't be harmed.

As they walked into the throne room, they heard some voices in the next room. Walking into that room, they found Undyne—who Sans greeted with a soft glare, and she sent it right back—Alphys, Frisk and Flowey, Asgore, of course, but there was also another goat monster who Sans didn't recognize. As soon as Sans stopped walking he felt two tiny hands grab fistfuls of the back of one of his pant legs. He glanced down and found Fate cutely hiding her face in the fabric of his basketball shorts. She was scared of someone in here, his SOUL was telling him so and it took some of his will to not start pointing accusing phalanges.

 _"—Dreemer."_

The female goat monster seems to have been scolding the King and he seemed to be shrinking away from her. Never in Sans' life has he seen the Monster King in such a state.

It was incredibly satisfying!

"Good, you're here." Frisk smiled and everyone else's attention landed on the brothers.

"YES, YES, WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR? ARE WE GOING TO THE SURFACE OR NOT?!" Papyrus impatiently asked.

"Sans." Alphys called, her gaze trained on something behind his leg. "You seem to have something attached to your leg there."

 _good eye there, einstein..._ Sans rolled his eye lights, but before he could tell her to mind her own business, the female goat monster gasped after catching a glimpse of Fate's shy and slightly frightened face. She quickly went over and lifted the toddler, all eyes now on her.

"My child! I have looked for you everywhere!"

Fate squealed in surprised, immediately following up with a short cry. Sans, suddenly feeling a sense of panic and fear, curled his hands into fists, his eye lights gone.

"Oh, dear...It is I, Toriel! Do not be frightened."

"That child..." Asgore piped up from where Toriel had left him, but she glared at him, daring him to continue. She became protective. There was no way he will hurt this child.

"hey!" Sans immediately caught Toriel's attention. "give me back my daughter." he growled out.

"Daughter?!" Alphys screeched in surprise. She definitely missed something and now she wants to know!

Toriel narrowed her eyes at the short skeleton, sizing him up.

"You must be Sans." she spoke slowly; calculating.

Fate had started to remember Toriel, feeling the soft of her white fur on her paws. There was a soft, calming feeling that was starting to settle in Sans' SOUL, but he was too on edge to notice.

"T-This is who I was talking about..." Frisk spoke to Toriel.

Frisk was growing nervous at the sense of heavy magic starting to rise and the smell of ozone coming from Sans that slightly grew stronger and stronger as the seconds passed. Toriel nuzzled her soft cheek against Fate, who giggled, before setting her down to let her go back to her father. Sans instantly picked her up as soon as Fate was close enough.

"Sans, this is Toriel. She was caretaker of the Ruins." Frisk spoke up again.

"so yer the famous caretaker i keep hearin' about." Sans started to calm down now that his daughter was in his arms and now that he knew who Toriel was.

"Thank you for showing this young child MERCY."

Sans doesn't know what that flower was so worried about. He can read people pretty well and Toriel doesn't seem like the kind of monster you have to run away from. She seemed quite motherly, in fact.

"If I had found out you had killed this child instead, you would not be standing." Toriel then added, her demeanor taking a quick one-eighty with a gaze, stone hard and chilling to the bone.

*ah, there it is!* She managed to actually give Sans a small chill up his spine.

"Mam." Fate pointed a chubby finger at Toriel.

Sans made an incredulous face at his daughter. "Yer kiddin', right?"

"U-Uh...Did she just call me 'Mother'?" Toriel's face completely lit up, a soft rosy color rising to her cheeks, her previous chilling demeanor gone without a trace.

"unfortunately."

Toriel opted for ignoring Sans for a moment and knelt down in front of him to speak to Fate.

"You want to call me your mother, do you not?" she cooed at Fate.

The toddler reached a hand out, wanting to touch one of the small horns poking out of the fur on Toriel's head, responding with another "Mam." so quietly that Toriel would have missed it had she not been looking at her.

"She is well-behaved." Toriel said, more to herself than anything else.

"yup." Sans replied, keeping a watchful eye on her.

"If that is your wish, little one. There are no barriers, you are _free_ to do as you'd like."

Sans stared at her in pleasant surprise, not bothering to stop her from plucking Fate from him for a second time. Fate babbled in happiness in Toriel's arms.

"OH MY STARS!" Papyrus suddenly exclaimed, having heard Toriel's pun.

Sans started howling with laughter as his brother shouted out. Toriel stared at Sans' sudden outburst, a smile playing on her face.

Nevermind what he thought before, anyone who appreciates bad puns are good in his book! Plus, Fate doesn't seem to mind her anymore. As Fate settled comfortably in Toriel's arms, a sense of calm joy started settling in Sans' SOUL. Right, now he knows for a fact this has to do with Fate's SOUL.

"HURRY, HUMAN! BEFORE SANS DECIDES TO ADD TO HER OFFENDING PUNS!" Papyrus exclaimed as he hurried past them toward the broken barrier.

With a smile, Frisk followed behind him and everyone else followed their example. As they exited the mouth of the opening, the sun's blinding sunset rendered the group speechless.

"It is beautiful." Toriel breathed out, and Frisk nodded, tears gathering in the corners of their eyes.

"Breathtaking..." Alphys muttered.

"BROTHER. WHAT IS THAT?" Papyrus called Sans' attention.

"that, bro, is what's called the sun." Sans wore a genuine smile.

"We made it." Undyne breathlessly commented, a proud tone in her voice.

"It is more beautiful than I remember..." Asgore said.

Toriel set Fate down so she could go to her father and took Frisk's hand instead.

"I, THE TERRIBLE PAPYRUS, WILL BLESS THE HUMANS WITH MY PRESENCE! NYAH-HAH-HAH-HAH!"

"W-Wait, Papyrus!" Frisk tried to stop him, but their voice fell on deaf ears.

"don't worry, kid. i got 'im." Sans winked and with Fate in his arms, he short-cutted away.

Papyrus didn't get too far before Sans appeared and stopped him, convincing him that the humans were simply not ready for his magnificence just yet. He needs to finish packing anyway.

By the time they got back home, Papyrus was buzzing with the excitement of meeting new humans, Sans was beaming, happy that his brother was happy and Fate had fallen asleep, her head resting on his shoulder, the fluff of his sweater making good for extra cushion. Sans bid Papyrus a good night, who was also heading to bed, and closed his bedroom door behind him. Setting Fate down on the inside side of the bed, he crawled in after and got comfortable.

Before he goes to sleep, Fate's SOUL must have something different about it. He carefully took it out to continue his previous investigations and froze upon seeing pure white filling in for missing pieces and cracks.

This is where the rest of his SOUL went? He brought his SOUL out to compare and it immediately gravitated toward hers. It stopped just short of touching and they happily floated beside each other. Sans again felt complete, both SOULs visibly pulsed silently. This is more than a SOUL bond. It's like he skipped the SOUL bond completely and went straight to two steps above it. His SOUL is literally attached to hers now! He wanted to save her so badly, his SOUL revived her by filling itself in. So all those extra senses of random emotions he felt were actually hers.

This SOUL thing is going to take some getting used to.

But he saved her yet again. If it weren't for him, Fate would have died ten times over.

Tomorrow, he and the others will continue their exploration of the surface. They're going to have to play this right. Humans are fragile beings and even with Frisk as the new Monster ambassador, the rest of the humans will first see Monsters with fear. This will definitely be tricky, but at least Monsters are free.

Satisfied, Sans hugged Fate to his chest and happily let her rhythmic breathing lull him to sleep.


	4. UF Sans - My Child part 2

Watching her father get hurt by the hands of her uncle, filled Y/n with anger.

"You outta pick on someone yer own size!"

Y/n stood in front of her adopted father—eyes red due to her magic flaring—glaring daggers at Papyrus the culprit, arms stretched out.

A heated argument paired with Sans' snarky comebacks, Papyrus had deemed that Sans was due for a proper punishment. Sans had told Y/n to stay out of his way when their argument started getting serious, code for "go hide" just in case things between him and his brother got a little out of hand.

So she ran under the table near the door, the one with a pet rock that was covered in glitter, courtesy of Y/n herself. She hid there, covered her ears and shut her eyes tight as their argument escalated into full blown shouting. Their shouting shook the 10 year old's very SOUL, making her eyes water and her body tremble, a pitiful whine escaping her. After one last shout from Sans, there was a weird hard sound and then a thump as something hit the floor, followed by the sound of a boot stomping. Y/n fearfully opened her eyes to find Papyrus' boot firmly keeping Sans' skull in place on the floor, an expression of pain on her father's face.

"I HAVE HAD IT WITH YOUR SHIT TALKING!" Papyrus bellowed. "IT SEEMS I HAVE TO REMIND YOU HOW YOU ARE TO SPEAK TO ME!"

With horror, little Y/n watched as Papyrus lifted his foot only to slam it back down on Sans' skull. Y/n gasped as Sans let out a cry in pain, following with stuttering apologies immediately after.

"IT IS TOO LATE FOR THAT!"

Papyrus' foot lifted again, but didn't land on Sans' skull. Y/n took advantage of his distraction with Sans to quickly get under his foot and push it back into him, nearly making him fall backwards. He instead stumbled back and quickly caught himself, surprise catching his features. In front of him he found his niece, protectively shielding Sans from further harm, her eyes red. Her shout at Papyrus was impressive, and he would have been impressed with maybe a condescending scoff if he wasn't already livid.

"YOU, A PITIFUL HUMAN, DARES TO CHALLENGE THE TERRIBLE PAPYRUS?!"

"Ya ain't 'upposed to hit daddy like that! Yer his brother!"

"I WILL NOT HESITATE TO STRIKE YOU DOWN AS WELL."

That's right, Papyrus hates Y/n. She was convinced by the way he treats her. He treated Sans slightly better, but even that wasn't good. Nothing she did brought joy to Papyrus. He called her stupid, pitiful, incompetent, whatever that means and all of the above.

And she tried. She tried so hard everyday to get him to smile at her. That's all she's ever asked for.

When she was younger, he would play with her, even as he grumbled about it. When Sans was busy, he would feed her and bathe her, even as he complained about it to no one in particular. On easy days, he would even watch TV with her. Well, he would watch TV and she would join him, but he didn't mind. Even after buying a house on the surface and moving in, their relationship was unwavering. Then she got older.

What changed?

"We ain't 'upposed to fight like this! We gotta show love to each other, not LOVE!"

"I GIVE YOU ONE LAST CHANCE TO STEP ASIDE, _HUMAN_."

Oh, he did not just—

"Are you kiddin' me?! What kinda brother are you?! You ain't actin' like the uncle I know! Yer actin' like those lug heads that don't know nothin' but LOVE! I don't know who _you_ are, but _I want my uncle back_!"

Now she was crying. Now Papyrus felt a pang of guilt shudder through his SOUL.

"If ya wanna pick on someone, go pick on Undyne! She'll put ya in yer place real good!"

"NOW YOU LISTEN HERE—" But Y/n was having none of that.

 _"Blow off yer steam somewhere else!"_

Papyrus glowered at her. No one speaks to the GREAT and TERRIBLE Papyrus like that. _No one_. He thought about hurting her. About throwing her out and finish his punishment on Sans. He even rose his rage-trembling fist toward her, but he couldn't. He _couldn't_ hurt the small, fragile thing in front of him. His small, fragile, pitiful, foolish human niece, who had jumped in front of him knowing full well what he was capable of.

Papyrus instead snarled in annoyance, a noise loud enough to make Y/n's SOUL shake in fear...and he turned, stomping away and slamming the front door behind him so loud, the two left in the house jumped out of their bones.

Pun intended.

" _what_ were ya thinkin', sweet pea?" Sans spoke after his daughter helped him onto the couch.

"I was thinkin' he shouldn't be hittin' you like that."

"he coulda hurt ya. don't do that again."

"I ain't gonna sit back and watch him hurt you!"

" _y/n_." a warning. She knows better than to raise her voice at her father.

She instantly shut her mouth, but as sad thoughts raced through her head, she couldn't help but utter, "That wasn't Uncle Papy..."

Sans carefully let his skull softly rest against the back of the couch, the makings of a killer headache quickly forming.

"yer right." Sans muttered. " _that was **boss**._"

Hours later when Papyrus returned home, he found the house dark and seemingly empty.

He lost his cool, showing Y/n who the Terrible Papyrus really is. She wasn't desensitized to that side of him. He had never shown her, he was mindful to never show her. It was no wonder she reacted the way she did.

He felt guilt. That never should have happened, especially not in front of Y/n. He doesn't even remember what they were arguing about, not like it matters anymore.

She'll probably hate him now, the realization hit him hard. She was the only other human besides Frisk that doesn't hate him or is afraid of him, but with his behavior, he probably flushed that down the drain.

He heavily sighed, his SOUL also heavy. It was getting late. He should head to bed.

The next morning, Y/n wouldn't look at him. Whether it was either from fear or hate, he couldn't tell and as far as he knew, it was most likely both. He didn't speak or glance her way either, he kept his gaze on the news on the TV. She grabbed her lunch Sans always prepared the night before from the fridge and headed off to school without muttering a single peep or a single glance his way.

If that didn't prove his suspicions, he didn't know what will.

When Sans came down, he was wary of him. Fearful he was still mad from yesterday. Even then, Papyrus didn't move, almost like he was a statue.

Papyrus felt bad, Sans knew he did, but he knew the numbskull would never admit or apologize for it. Only time will tell how this will turn out and he hoped it would turn out for the better. In the meantime, perhaps he could talk to him?

"heya, boss..." Sans was careful with his tone and volume.

Papyrus was silent.

"n-no work today?"

"No."

There was no emotion under his answer. Not pleasant, not monotone. Just hard.

Sans didn't have any other words for the taller skeleton whose gaze was unwavering from the TV. Sans played it safe and kept quiet, sitting on the lazy boy resting on the other side of the couch farthest from his brother. He opted for watching the news with him and let the quiet droning of the news people fill the empty silence in the room.

Later on that day, Sans stopped by Grillby's new establishment to wait for the remainder of the time for Y/n to come out of school, but when he was about to shortcut to pick her up, Y/n called his cell, telling him she was going to spend some time with Frisk and Flowey, her older siblings, she called them. That wasn't anything new. She visited them occasionally, but he couldn't shake the feeling that she was only trying to avoid Papyrus. Even so, he told her to have fun.

At mid evening, Sans met Toriel in the driveway, worried because she brought Y/n home a bit too late for his liking, but she reassured him by telling him that she had decided to stay for dinner.

"Bye, Mama." Y/n muttered.

"Good night, my child." Toriel replied softly and silently urged Sans to stay, watching Y/n sulk her way into the house.

"Has something happened? She seems to be quite down."

Sans inwardly cringed. "it ain't nothin' we can't handle. we'll get _over_ it."

Toriel suppressed a giggle and shot him a pointed look, but he wasn't about to tell her that his daughter witnessed him getting beaten.

"she'll be _right_ back to her old self in no time, heh." his smile felt fake and so did his laugh, even to himself and he wanted to face-palm.

"Alright," Toriel sighed, obviously not convinced. "But if there is anything you need, you know where to find me."

"you jus' bein' there fer y/n is doin' wonders. keep _up_ the good work."

"I try." Toriel let a giggle escape and gave him a patient smile. "Good night, Sans."

"night, tor."

The next morning, as Y/n did her usual morning routine for school and headed downstairs to grab her lunch and head out, her unemotional gaze caught Papyrus' on the staircase.

They stared each other in the eyes, both unwavering. Behind Papyrus' seemingly permanent hard stare, she saw a hidden question, begging to be answered. She didn't answer it, instead smoothly going back to what she was doing. She grabbed her lunch and headed out without another glance.

What was that? Surely if she hated him or even feared him, she wouldn't have kept his gaze for that long, right? Was what he thought before wrong? Certainly the Great and Terrible Papyrus is never wrong! She changed her mind, is what happened. But of course, who can hate perfection?

When Sans finally woke up and came downstairs, he immediately noticed Papyrus' improved mood. Papyrus was doing exactly what he was doing the day before, but he just seemed...better.

"heya, boss." Sans greeted him the same as any other morning.

Papyrus simply grunted, at least acknowledging that he was there. _definitely better than yesterday._

Sans silently sat down on the couch and watched the news with him, just as he does nearly every morning.

Later that day, Y/n again called Sans stating she was going to visit her older brothers again. _still avoiding the boss._

"have fun, sweet pea."

She ended up staying for dinner again, but Toriel drove her home a bit earlier this time around. Sans met her in the driveway as per usual.

"She seems to be feeling better today." Toriel stated, watching Y/n enter the house.

"told ya. got everythin' under control."

Toriel hummed a sound in agreement, then bid him a good night. As Sans closed the front door behind him, he found Y/n and Papyrus staring at each other. Not knowing what was going on, some sweat gathered on his skull, becoming more and more nervous the longer they stared. Finally, Y/n broke it, calmly walking passed her uncle and up the stairs to her room, while Papyrus turned his attention back to his cooking. Sans was too curious about what just happened and decided to ask her after asking his brother if he was all right.

He didn't get an answer.

Y/n left her door open as she put her school bag away, so Sans knocked on her door frame to get her attention.

"you, uh, wanna talk about what that was downstairs?"

"Not really." Y/n deadpanned.

At that, Sans entered her bedroom and closed the door behind him, then proceeded to sit on her bed.

"well i do."

Y/n sighed. This was as awkward for him as it was for her. Even after all these years of raising her, he still wasn't very good at the sharing of feelings mumbo-jumbo, but at least he's trying.

Which told her the lazy skeleton thought it was important enough to discuss.

"c'mon, sweet pea, 'm tryin' here." when he didn't get an answer, he added a firm tone to his voice. "tell me what that starin' was about."

Y/n paused, not really wanting to talk about this, but she knew Sans wasn't going to let it go, so she sat next to him before speaking.

"...I was tellin' him that I'm still mad at him and I don't forgive him fer what he did." she didn't meet his eye lights as she spoke. "That's it."

Sans sighed. "sweet pea—"

"I know he feels bad, but I'm still mad at him."

"ya gotta let it go." Y/n shook her head. "y'know how long it's been since we fought like that?" Again, she shook her head. "Since right after i started takin' care of you. the boss didn't want you to see us fightin' all the time."

"...that doesn't make what happened OK."

"i know, but it means we came a long way since you've been livin' with us."

"Daddy?" Y/n spoke up again after a moment of silence. He gave a small noise as an answer. "Does that mean Uncle Papy _doesn't_ hate me?"

Sans felt his SOUL drop like his smile. In the back of his mind, he was always afraid she would ask that.

"princess," he scooped her up and sat her in his lap. "papyrus _never_ hated you."

And it's true. He may have thought that she was weak, an inferior creature to him especially when she was a baby, but not once had he looked at her with hatred.

Disgust? Absolutely. But never hatred.

"Before _that_ , he always treated you better than me. He never smiled at me—"

"that ain't true." Sans said with a scoff and a knowing smile. "whenever he thought nobody was lookin', he always smiled at you. you were too young to remember."

"Really?"

"paps has a reputation to uphold an' he's too stubborn fer his own good, but he never hated ya. always remember that." he poked her nose.

With a small smile and sniffle, she nodded, hugging him in appreciation.

The next morning, Y/n glanced at her uncle, who was watching the news for the weather as per usual, as she headed down the stairs. Once he noticed it was her, he kept his eye sockets on her as she headed toward the kitchen to grab her lunch. She felt eyes on her as she opened the fridge, so she glanced behind her and Papyrus quickly looked away, pretending that he wasn't looking in the first place. Y/n shook her head and grabbed her lunch, then headed to the front door, but after she opened it, she muttered loud enough for her uncle to hear.

"G'mornin', Boss."

And she hurried out before he had time to respond to her.

After school, she once again phoned Sans to tell him she was going to the park with a friend to play. She sounded happier, so he told her to be careful and if anything she would have to call Papyrus or Toriel since he has to work later than usual today.

Papyrus cursed to himself as his phone started to ring while he was in the middle of making dinner. Using his magic to place his masterpiece of a lasagna in the preheated oven, he quickly answered his cell before it had a chance to go to voicemail, not even looking at the caller ID.

"STATE YOUR BUSINESS QUICKLY." he ordered with a firm voice.

"...C-Can ya pick me up, Uncle Papy?"

He would have chided her about interrupting him and about how condescending she sounded this morning, if not for her rather stuffed nosed sniffle and broken voice. Instead he replied,

"AND WHERE ARE YOU?"

"Th' park..."

He just put dinner in the oven, it's going to take a while to bake anyway.

"FINE. DON'T YOU MOVE FROM THERE." He hung up.

Quickly, he grabbed his scarf he had hung on the coat rack by the door and wrapped it around his neck as he headed out the door.

After scouring the park, he finally found her huddled on a bench with a sour look on her face and what he saw made his magic flare in anger. She was banged up pretty bad, covered in bruises and cuts. He even saw blood.

 _If he catches whoever did this..._

"Are You Well Enough To Walk?" he asked in an uncharacteristically softer tone than usual when he approached her.

Without a word, she slowly rose from the bench and he took that as a 'yes' as he lead the way out of the park. He watched her with a trained eye, noticing how she winced sometimes, a small sniffle following each time. After hearing a particularly loud hiss from trying to keep up with him, he stopped completely, turned and knelt before her. She couldn't look at his judging eye lights, instead focusing on anything other than him. The ground looked pretty interesting at the moment.

"TELL ME WHO DID THIS TO YOU."

"Two older boys from school." she immediately confessed.

"BOYS? THAT MAKES THIS MUCH MORE INTERESTING. LET US SEE HOW _THEY_ LIKE TO BE BRUISED." he growled.

"I started th' fight, Uncle."

"WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?" the confession surprised him. She may not be a pushover, but usually being a well behaved child, she's never started fights. "YOU KNOW BETTER THAN THAT. I WILL BE INFORMING MY BROTHER WHEN HE GETS HOME."

"As if I was gonna let 'em keep sayin' mean thins about you and daddy."

Another surprising confession. She was defending him? After what he did to her?

"HOW DID YOU KNOW THEY WERE TALKING ABOUT US?"

"They were talkin' about how ugly and idiotic th' skeleton monsters were. Yer th' only skeletons in town."

Well that changes things.

"YOU DID NOT START THAT FIGHT," Papyrus scooped her up, ignoring how she winced and protested. "YOU FINISHED IT." At this rate, dinner is going to burn, so he resumed walking at his naturally fast pace. "HOW MUCH DAMAGE DID YOU INFLICT ON THEM?

"I conjured some sharp sticks around me with blue magic, so it could burn 'em when they tried to touch me again. An' when I threw one, it stuck to th' tree behind 'em an' that's when they ran away like babies."

The baby bones training he gave her when the brothers learned she could conjure blue magic proved useful. Papyrus proudly smirked.

"SERVES THEM RIGHT."

After they got home, he carefully set her down and checked on dinner, which was ready. Quickly, he took it out and set it on the table so it can cool down and completely set. After that, he returned to his niece, kneeling down in front of her. She looked like she wanted to cry. He stared directly at her SOUL without pulling it out, making her feel naked and vulnerable. Her HP was at five out of twenty.

"LIFT UP YOUR SHIRT."

Figures he would know where it hurt the most. Slowly, she did so, revealing big, dark bruising on her ribs and stomach.

He will find the boys who did this to her.

After giving her a look to tell her to stay, he disappeared into the kitchen, clattered a couple things around, then returned in a quick fashion. He knelt in front of her again and held out a hard candy in a blue wrapper, which she stared at in confusion. She wasn't going to say no to candy, but it seemed like a random gesture. She was taking too long, so he unwrapped it and pressed it against her lips.

"EAT THIS." he deadpanned. "IT IS A RARE MONSTER CANDY TO COME BY. IT HAS HEALING PROPERTIES IF CONSUMED."

That's the first she's heard of any monster food with healing abilities. It was pleasantly sweet and she felt the pain all over her body ebb away. HP: 15. If this didn't prove he didn't hate her and in fact did care for her, she didn't know what will. As she came to that realization, she threw her arms around her uncle's neck and started crying, catching Papyrus by surprise.

"I don't wanna fight with you anymore!" she cried. "I wanna watch T.V with you! An' make a puzzle with you!"

Despite everything, she still loved her uncle.

"But you never wanna do any of that with me anymore..." she continued.

Papyrus felt a pang of shame travel through his SOUL. He did want to do that with her. He wanted to do all of that and more, but he thought—since she was a big girl now—that _she_ didn't want to do any of that with _him_. He had heard a conversation she had with Sans, about how she was big now, that her favorite childhood game wasn't as fun to her anymore. So Papyrus had assumed that now that she was grown, those childhood games and puzzles he used to play with her would now be boring. He realized he was right, in a sense, but now he realized she didn't want to completely stop playing with him.

"An' you were so scary! I thought you were gonna seriously hurt daddy..."

He knew she was scared. Another wave of guilt hit his SOUL as he looked at her with a genuine apologetic expression. It was never his intention to scare her. He was in such a blind anger that he reverted back to how he was before she entered their lives. After a long moment, he hugged her small body against him with a huge hand against her back.

"I UNDERSTAND, NIECE."

She pulled back to look at his face, sniffling.

"That's my line..."

He grunted in response, standing and taking Y/n with him to get the first-aid kit for the wounds that the candy didn't heal. She sat comfortably on his large arm as he carried her to the bathroom. He sat her on the toilet and brought out normal bandages and wrapping bandages from the kit. She winced when he started to silently tightly wrap bandages around her torso. His hands weren't gentle, but deliberate. After that, he cleaned up the scratches that he found, including a scraped knee and scraped palms, wrapping those in bandages as well.

Papyrus was thankful he decided to invest in first-aid kits.

"...Can I help you set th' table?"

Papyrus brightened at the question. "WE WILL FINISH QUICKER THAT WAY. FINISHED."

"You're the best, Uncle Papy." she genuinely expressed as he started packing the antiseptics and leftover bandages back into it's place.

"I KNOW." he smirked.

Sans couldn't completely focus halfway through work. His daughter's SOUL was reaching out to him, to the point where it became borderline unbearable. He almost abandoned work all together when he felt anger turn to fear, but shortly after it went right back to anger and mixed with DETERMINATION. What the fuck was going on?! Is Y/n under attack?! Does he need to show someone the meaning of a **e**?!

Sans was becoming distraught and only noticed he was clutching his shirt over his SOUL when Alphys called his attention, his SOUL visibly pulsing _through_ his hand and his eye sockets devoid of lights.

Alphys told him to go home, deciding that he wasn't feeling well enough for today's full shift. He didn't need persuasion and just about teleported home to find out what exactly was going on with his little girl—who's SOUL was calm by now—but was surprised when he opened the front door. He was greeted with the sight of a sleeping Y/n cuddled into his brother's side on the couch with a blanket draped over them both, which only covered Papyrus' lap. He was watching Mettaton; Sans could hear the robot's boisterous voice from the low volume of the T.V.

With a relaxed smile, Sans thought to sit on his daughter's unoccupied side. When he sat down, he let out a sigh of relief. Now he gets to relax with his two most favorite people in the world. Y/n stirred slightly, humming as Sans ran his hand soothingly down her shoulder length hair.

Papyrus was waiting for Sans to notice that Y/n was injured, but with the blanket combo-ed with the way Y/n was cuddled into him, he's not going to notice a thing unless he took her to bed. That might be for the best. Personally, Papyrus thought he and his brother can discuss what happened and what they will do about it as she's resting. Especially with how fast she had fallen asleep after dinner. She was clearly more exhausted than Papyrus had first thought.

After Mettaton's show, Sans saw it fit to take Y/n to bed, blanket and all, but as he lifted her, he heard Papyrus mutter:

"WE WILL TALK ONCE YOU COME BACK DOWNSTAIRS."

Sans shot him a confused expression. About what exactly? He knows he hasn't done anything to upset him recently. Not again anyway. He decided to shrug that off and put Y/n to bed, so he headed upstairs carefully, as not to not jostle and wake her up. He tucked her in and gave her head one last loving stroke before standing up straight...but something wasn't right. Are her hands bandaged up? Both of them are, now that he took another look. Sans' eye lights disappeared as Papyrus words echoed in his skull. She _was_ attacked, the way her SOUL felt earlier made total sense now! The only thing missing now was the full information. Sans walked down the stairs, eye lights still missing and his face serious, devoid of his signature grin. Here we go. Papyrus waited for his brother to sit down before he started explaining.

"what happened to her?"

"SHE WAS INVOLVED IN A FIGHT. SHE CALLED MY CELLULAR PHONE TO ASK ME TO WALK HER HOME FROM THE PARK. WHEN I GOT THERE, SHE WAS SULKING ON A BENCH, LOOKING BEATEN."

"who did this?" Sans can barely contain his anger.

"SHE TOLD ME THAT IT WAS 'SOME BOYS FROM SCHOOL'. SHE DID NOT PROVIDE ANY NAMES."

Sans curled his hands in an attempt to keep himself from marching out and finding those boys himself.

"IT CAME TO MY ATTENTION THAT SHE HAD FINISHED THE FIGHT. APPARENTLY, THE HUMANS WHERE BAD MOUTHING US, SO SHE DECIDED TO PUT THEM IN THEIR PLACE."

"she did?" In surprise, his eye lights returned, although dim.

"YES, SO SHE DESERVES A TREAT. I SUGGEST WE GO OUT FOR DINNER TOMORROW."

"yeah, we can go out." he hastily said. "did you tell her how dangerous it could have been?"

"AND REPRIMAND HER FOR DOING GOOD BY DEFENDING THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE PAPYRUS?! OF COURSE NOT!"

"but she's still a kid, papyr—"

"BOSS."

 _"papyrus."_

"NEVER YOU MIND HOW DANGEROUS OR NOT IT WAS FOR Y/N TO STICK UP TO OTHER HUMANS! WE WILL HAVE Y/N POINT THEM OUT NEXT TIME SHE IS AT THE PARK AND WE WILL SHOW THOSE BOYS EXACTLY WHO IT IS THEY ARE DEALING WITH!"

Sans smirked. "good plan, bro."

Papyrus' smirk matched Sans'.

"OF COURSE IT IS! IT WAS I WHO THOUGHT OF IT!"


End file.
